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IRELAND 


AMONG   THE    NATIONS; 


OR, 


THE    FAULTS   AND  VIRTUES   OF   THE  IRISH  COM- 
PARED WITH  THOSE  OF  OTHER  RACES. 


BY   THE 

REV.   J.   O'LEARY,   D.D.     E 


BOSTON  COLLEGE  LIBRARY 
CHJCSTaUT  HILL,  MASS. 


BOSTON  : 

D.  O'LOUGHLIN, 

IRISH  NATIONAL  PUBLISHING  HOUSE, 

630  Washington  Street. 


A   y*  -a 


Copyright,  1881, 

BY 

D.  O'LOUGHLIN 


TO   THE 

REV.    THOMAS   FARRELL, 

pastor  of  st.  Joseph's  church,  new  york, 

this  book 

is  dedicated,  as  a  mark  of  respect 

FOR 
HIS  LONG,   FAITHFUL,   AND   UNBLEMISHED   CAREER  AS  A  CATHO- 
LIC    PRIEST  ;    HIS    LOVE     OF    TRUTH,   RIGHT,   AND   JUS- 
TICE,  AS    AN    AMERICAN   CITIZEN  ;   HIS  BIG  HEART 
AND  BROAD  HUMANITY   FOR   ALL    RACES  AS  A 
MAN  ;    AND  HIS  UNIFORM    GOODNESS  AND 
KINDNESS  TO  ME  AS   MY  OLD   PASTOR, 
BY 

THE  AUTHOR, 

J.  O'LEARY. 


PREFACE. 


jHE  object  of  this  book  is  to  place 
Ireland  in  her  true  light  among 
nations,  and  to  awaken  the  rea- 
soning powers,  and  call  forth  the 
judgment  of  the  Irish  race,  rather  than  to 
excite  its  fervor  and  inflame  its  enthusiasm. 
I  do  not  wish  to  abate  the  patriotism  of  the 
Irish  race,  or  to  impair  its  affection  for  the 
church  ;  but  I  am  of  opinion  that  a  patriotism 
and  religion  founded  on  reason,  appreciation, 
and  judgment  are  built  on  a  firmer  founda- 
tion than  sentiment,  affection,  and  enthusiasm 
can  supply.  A  true  estimate  of  one's  self 
will  lead  to  a  correct  estimate  of  others  ;  and 
truth  will  always  be  a  stronghold  in  war 
and  a  safeguard  in  peace.  When  the  Irish 
people  reflect  what  a  small  fragment  they 
are  of  the  human  race,  and  when  they  under- 
stand their  true  position,  and  accurately  calcu- 


vi  Preface. 

late  their  power  and  influence,  their  move- 
ments and  undertakings  will  be  less  subject 
to  failure. 

On  account  of  the  limits  of  this  book,  and 
the  vast  range  of  subject-matter  to  be  travel- 
led over,  I  have  not  been  able  to  do  much 
more  than  state  conclusions  without  inserting 
reasons  or  bringing  forward  authorities.  If 
my  judgments  are  correct,  and  tend  to  make 
the  Irish  rational  towards  themselves,  just 
towards  others,  and  successful  in  the  future ; 
if  the  chapters  of  this  book  stir  up  the  man- 
hood, self-respect,  and  dignity  of  Irish  readers; 
if  the  children  of  other  races  into  whose  hands 
it  may  come  pronounce  my  opinions  impartial 
and  truthful ;  and  if  from  its  perusal  a  warmer 
love  and  deeper  reverence  be  enkindled  in 
the  minds  of  Irish- Americans  for  the  United 
States  and  American  institutions,  Ireland 
ajmong  the  Nations  will  accomplish  its  ob- 
ject, and  it  will  not  repent  me  to  have  writ- 
ten it.  J.  O'L. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ETHNOGRAPHY  AND  ITS  PRINCIPLES. 

PAGE. 

The  insignificance  and  perishable  nature  of  man— The  life  and  spirit  of 
races— The  aim  of  ethnography — Ethnography,  biography,  and 
geography — The  formative  elements  of  national  character — The 
iust  test  of  national  character— The  study  of  ethnography  leads  to 
the  sovereignty  of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  races,         .       .    11-19 


CHAPTER  II. 

ETHNOGRAPHY  AND    THE    EARLY  DIVISIONS    OF    THE 
HUMAN  RACE. 

The  joys  of  paradise — The  children  of  God  and  the  children  of  men— The 
waves  of  the  human  family  which  flowed  from  the  high  table-lands 
of  Aram  or  Irania — Four  points  on  the  globe  which  possessed  a 
peculiar  and  isolated  grandeur — Characteristics  of  Oriental 
nations  and  Western  races— Unity  of  the  human  family,     .       .    20-24 


CHAPTER  III. 

ETHNOGRAPHY  AND    THE   VARIA  TIONS  OF  RACES  IN  THE 
LAPSE  OF  AGES. 

The  Jews  and  Christians— The  Asiatic  empires  and  the  Roman  Em- 
pire— Ireland  and  Byzantium— The  Hebrew  nation— The  Christian 
peoples— The  facilities  for  intercommunication  between  nations  in 
our  age— Evangelization  of  heathendom, 25-29 


viii  Contents, 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  SCYTHIANS  AND  THE   CELTS. 

PAGE. 

The  inhabitants  of  Inner  Asia— The  account  of  Josephus— The  descrip- 
tion of  Ezechiel— Habits  of  the  Scythians— Independence  of  the 
Scythians— What  the  Scythians  have  done  for  Europe— The  Scy- 
thians and  the  Celts— Character  of  the  Celts  of  Erin,        .       .    30-34 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  HEBREWS. 

The  glories  of  God's  people— The  obstinacy  of  Israel— The  sinfulness 
of  Israel— The  pride  of  the  Hebrews— Repudiation  of  the  Hebrew 
republic  and  protests  of  the  prophet  Samuel — Disadvantages  of 
monarchy— Restlessness  of  the  Hebrews  down  to  the  republics  of 
France  and  America — Comparison  of  the  Hebrews  and  the 
Irish 35-4X 


CHAPTER  VI. 

ANCIENT  ASIA. 

The  magnificence  and  shame  of  Ancient  Asia — Despotism  and  degrada- 
tion— Assyria  and  Ninive — The  glories  of  Babylon — Description 
of  the  overthrow  of  Babylon— The  rise  of  the  Persians  to  power — 
The  Persians  and  Celts— Despotism  leads  to  desolation— The  words 
of  the  Prophet  Sophonias, 42-48 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  GREEK'S. 

Greece  and  the  Orient— The  influence  of  Greece  upon  the  human 
race — The  triumphs  of  Greece  in  the  literary  world— Grecian  valor 
and  Grecian  writers — The  Amphictyonic  assemblies — Public  meet- 
ings in  Greece— Slavery  in  Greece— The  downfall  of  Greece,  .    49-54 


Contents.  ix 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  ROMANS. 

PAGE. 

The  high  position  of  the  Roman  name  among-  nations — Was  the  Roman 
Empire  the  result  of  military  mechanism  ? — Glory  of  the  old  Roman 
Empire — Grecian  and  Roman  systems  of  warfare — The  navy  of 
Rome — Effects  of  Roman  character  and  institutions — Character- 
istics of  the  old  Romans — Vices  of  the  old  Romans — Downfall  of 
the  Roman  Empire — A  lesson  for  Ireland, 55-63 


CHAPTER  IX. 
THE  TEUTONS  AND  ANGLO-SAXONS. 

The  situation  of  Germany  and  its  central  position — Relations  with 
outside  nations — Relations  of  the  Saxon  branch  of  the  Teutonic 
race  with  the  Caledonians  and  Hibernians — Grand  results  of  Irish 
missionary  labors — Germany  garnering  the  harvest  sown  by  Celtic 
and  Saxon  laborers,    .  64-66 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  MOHAMMEDANS  AND  THE  ARABS. 

Arabia  a  land  of  independence— Mohammedanism  alone  seems  to 
have  left  its  footprints  on  Arabia's  sands — Success  of  Mohammed — 
Wide  sweep  of  Mohammedan  conquest — Causes  which  led  to  the 
triumphs  of  Mohammedanism — Elements  which  have  led  to  the 
decay  and  will  effect  the  downfall  of  Mohammedanism — Analogy 
between  the  Mohammedans  and  Israelites — The  world-wide  hu- 
manity of  the  Christian  religion,     67-73 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE  NORMAN  AND  THE  DANE. 

The  land  of  the  Northman— Love  of  the  Northman  for  conquest  in  the 
South — The  triumph  of  Ireland  over  the  Northman  at  Clontarf— 
The  Norman  settlement  in  Neustria,  and  the  conquest  of  Eng- 
land— Return  of  the  tide  of  Norman  invasion  into  Ireland  by 
another  channel — Subjugation  of  Ireland, 74-76 


Contents. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

MEDIMVAL  ITALIAN  REPUBLICS. 

PAGE, 

The  republics  of  Israel,  Carthage,  Athens,  Sparta,  Rome— Mediaeval 
republics  at  Florence,  Genoa,  Venice,  Rome,  and  other  Italian 
cities— Blessings  from  the  Italian  republics— The  great  men  of 
Rome  and  Florence— Italian  republics  the  aurora  of  a.  brighter 
light,     ...  77-79 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
THE  BYZANTINE  GREEKS. 

The  grand  and  commanding  position  of  Byzantium,  or  Constanti- 
nople— The  advantages  which  Constantinople  has  conferred  on  the 
human  race — Singular  similarity  between  the  fate  of  Ireland  and 
the  fate  of  Constantinople — The  uprising  of  the  Greek,  and  the 
downfall  of  the  Turk, 80-82 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE  ENGLISHMAN  A  T  HOME. 

The  glory  of  the  British  Empire— The  English  are  a  proud,  vain,  haugh- 
ty, and  insolent  people— The  English  aristocracy— Characteristics  of 
the  English  masses— The  power  of  the  English— Liberation  of  West 
Indian  slaves  by  the  English— Liberation  of  Saxon  slaves  by  the 
Irish, 83-86 

CHAPTER  XV. 

THE  ENGLISHMAN  ABROAD. 

The  infamy  which  Englishmen  abroad  have  stamped  on  their  country — 
Lawlessness  of  human  passions — What  is  the  British  Empire  ? — 
The  testimony  of  Ireland — The  testimony  of  America— The  voices 
of  India,  Africa,  and  Oceanica— The  British  aristocracy,        .    87-89 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  FRENCHMAN  A  T  HOME. 

The  Frenchman  absorbed  in  France — France  animated  as  one  body — 
The  homogeneity  of  France— France,  a  nation  of  principle — 
France,  the  friend  of  oppressed  nationalities— The  elasticity  of 
France, 90-92 


Contents.  xi 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE  FRENCHMAN  ABROAD. 

PAGE, 

The  characteristics  of  the  Frenchman — The  Frenchman  in  America, 
in  Asia,  and  in  Africa — Preponderance  of  English  colonization — 
Civilization  and  patriotism  of  the  French,    .....    93-94 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE  GERMAN. 

Reawakening  of  Germany — Despotism  of  the  German  Empire — The 
Republic  of  France  a  lesson  to  Germany — Character  of  the 
German  race— The  Germans  in  America  and  their  peculiarities — 
The  German,  the  Irishman,  and  the  American,  .       .       .    95-99 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE  ITALIAN. 

What  are  the  Italian's  traits  of  character  ? — What  is  his  history  ? — 
What  has  the  Italian  done  in  the  religious,  social,  and  political 
world  ? — What  is  the  rank  of  Italy  in  science,  history,  philosophy, 
poetry,  architecture,  industry,  and  the  fine  arts  ? — What  are  the 
relations  of  Italy  and  the  Papacy  ? 100-101 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE  SPANIARD. 

Characteristics  of  the  Spaniard— The  three  great  wars  of  Spain— Spain 
in  the  days  of  her  glory — Decline  of  Spain — Republics  for  the 
Latin  races,  despotisms  for  the  Teutons, 102-103 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

OTHER  EUROPEAN  RACES. 

The   modern  Greek— The   Pole— The   Hungarian— The  Turk— The 
Danes  and  Scandinavians — The  Swiss — The  Russians,   .        .     104-105 


xii  Contents, 


CHAPTER  XXII. 
THE  INHABITANTS  OF  ASIA. 

PAGE. 

The  physical  features  of  Asia — The  races  of  Asia — The  inland  and 
maritime  populations — Their  characteristics— The  religions  of 
Asia — The  religion  of  Zoroaster — A  hymn  of  Zoroaster — A  prayer 
of  Zoroaster — An  invocation  of  Zoroaster — Thanksgiving  of 
Zoroaster — A  patet  or  confession  of  Zoroaster — The  religion  of 
Confucius  and  Lao-tse— The  religion  of  Brahman — The  four 
Vedas — The  idea  of  caste — The  religion  of  Buddha — The  Dham- 
mapada  on  the  doctrine  of  love,  on  moral  virtues,  on  ignorance — 
The  present  condition  and  prospects  of  Asia,    ....    106-115 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

THE  INHABITANTS  OF  AFRICA  — THE  NEGRO,  THE  INDIAN, 
THE  POLYNESIAN. 

Africa,  the  unknown  land — Northern  Africa — Western  Africa — 
Kaffraria — Eastern  and  Central  Africa — The  Carthaginians  and 
Egyptians — The  glory  of  old  Egypt— Description  of  Egyptian  life 
from  the  tombs  of  Egypt-  Astounding  knowledge  of  the  Ancient 
Egyptians— Enduring  nature  of  Egyptian  monuments— Rays  of 
light  shining  on  Africa — The  African  Negro,  the  Indian,  and  the 
Polynesian — Illustrations  from  Buddha — A  grand  field  for  Chris- 
tian missionaries, 116-123 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

THE  SCOTCHMAN. 

Description  of  the  Celt— The  physical  features  of  Scotland— The  indepen- 
dence and  glory  of  the  Scotchman  through  ages — The  Ecclesiasti- 
cal life  of  Scotland — The  high  culture  of  the  Scotch— The  oneness 
of  the  Scotch  and  Irish  races— Resolutions  of  Bishop  Keane  and 
his  clergy, 124-131 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

THE  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  IRISH  RACE. 

Names  and  description  of  ancient  Ireland— The  people  of  Eri— The 
religious  instinct  of  the  Irish  pagan  people— Irish  love  of  music 
and  war— The  hospitality  of  the  Irish— Pagan  Ireland  illumined 


Contents,  xiii 


PAGE. 

with  the  light  of  faith — The  foundations  of  Irish  national  life— The 
religion  and  nationality  of  Ireland — The  elasticity  of  the  Irish 
spirit — The  assimilating  powers  of  the  Irish  race — What  religion 
has  given  to  nationality — What  Celtic  nationality  has  imparted  to 
religion— The*  Scotch  and  the  Irish — The  Celtic  race  and  other 
races — Attributes  of  the  Celtic  race, 132-137 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

THE  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  IRISH  RA  CE. 

What  is  the  resurrection  of  the  Irish  or  Celtic  race  ? — Ireland's  glory 
at  home  and  abroad — The  three  woes  of  Ireland —Agencies  of 
destruction — A  scene  of  desolation  in  Connaught — Agencies  of 
resistance — Favorable  circumstances  of  expansion— The  Irish  race 
to-day  with  its  emblems — Advice  for  the  future:  solidarity, 
organization,  education,  an  independent  and  intelligent  use  of  the 
ballot, 138-156 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 

THE  IRISH  RACE  ABROAD. 

Settled  habits  and  homes  of  the  Irish  race — Great  exodus  of  the  Irish 
people  at  the  beginning  of  our  generation — The  law  of  migra- 
tion—The Irish  in  England,  Scotland,  and  Wales — The  Irish  in 
Canada  and  Australia — The  Irish  in  the  United  States — Mistakes 
in  the  transplantation  of  the  Irish  race, 157-162 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

THE  FORMA  TIVE  ELEMENTS   OF   THE   CA  THOLIC  CHURCH 
IN  THE  UNITED  ST  A  TES. 

The  formative  elements  found  in  the  Episcopacy — Mr.  Clarke's  book — 
Importance  of  the  subject— High  standing  of  the  British  Empire  in 
the  world — Relative  positions  of  Britain  and  France— Nationality  of 
deceased  American  Catholic  prelates— Seven  national  Catholic 
Churches  founded  by  the  Irish — Teachers  of  the  Irish  Catholic 
Church— Irish  Catholic  churches  abroad— The  Catholic  Church  in 
the  United  States— Its  characteristics— The  nationalities  trom 
which  it  has  been  built— The  Fathers  of  the  American  Catholic 
Church— Bishops  Brute,  England,  Cirroll,  Spalding;  Archbishops 
Kenrick  and  Hughes— Peace  be  with  their  spirits,    .        .        .    163-174 


xiv  Contents, 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

THE  AMERICAN. 

PAGE, 

How  rapidly  the  American  has  assumed  a  national  type  of  charac 
ter — The  national  characteristics  of  the  American— The  position  of 
the  Irish  race  in  this  country — The  position  of  the  German  race — 
Their  relative  importance  at  present  and  in  future — Remarks  of  an 
eminent  Catholic  priest  to  Irish-Americans  on  the  rehabilitation  of 
American  national  life  at  the  close  of  the  late  war,  .       .       ,    175-184 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

THE  DESTINY  OF  AMERICA. 

What  is  destiny  ?— The  physical  features  and  natural  advantages  of 
America — Its  influential  situation  between  Europe  and  Asia — 
The  cosmopolitanism  of  American  institutions — The  Constitution 
and  the  sects— The  laws  of  the  United  States  and  -the  doctrines 
of  the  Catholic  Church— The  destiny  of  the  Catholic  Church— The 
destiny  of  the  United  States,  and  the  destiny  of  the  Irish  race,  185-191 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 

EDUCA  TION  AMONG  RACES. 

The  Golden  Ages  of  the  world— The  importance  of  education— A 
national  intellect,  a  national  will,  a  national  memory,  and  a 
national  imagination— The  Italian — The  Teutons — The  French— 
The  Irish  and  Scotch— The  march  of  civilization  through  Asia, 
Greece,  Rome,  and  the  nations  of  Western  Europe— Civilization 
in  America— Ireland  and  the  Irish  race  in  the  battle-field  of  civil- 
ization,     192-201 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 

COMPARATIVE  SURVEY  OF  RACES. 

Ancient  races,  Scythians,  Hebrews,  Assyrians,  Babylonians,  and  Per- 
sians—Greeks and  Romans  -Teutons,  Mohammedans,  and  North- 
men— Medieeval  Italian  Republics  and  Byzantians — English, 
French,  Germans,  Italians,  Spaniards,  and  other  Europeans — 
The  nations  of  modern  Asia — Africans  and  Polynesians— Scotch 
and  Irish,  or  the  Celtic  race — The  American's  position  stated  in 
seven  conclusions  derived  from  the  foregoing  chapters,         .    202-208 


IRELAND  AMONG  THE  NATIONS. 


CHAPTER    I. 

ETHNOGRAPHY   AND   ITS  PRINCIPLES. 

S  there  a  thinking  man  who  has  con- 
sidered himself  and  the  countless 
myriads  by  whom  he  is  surrounded, 
and  has  not  wondered  at  his  own 
insignificance  ?  Has  any  one  contemplated  the 
unnumbered  generations  that  have  rolled  away, 
as  so  many  waves,  into  eternity,  and  not  been 
awfully  impressed  with  the  lesson  that  he  is  a 
bubble  on  the  surface  of  time,  and  that  his  life  is 
an  unreality  ?  Who  has  studied  the  unerring  and 
remorseless  power  with  which  each  age  forces  its 
predecessor  over  the  dark  precipice  of  death,  and 
has  not  mourned  over  the  perishable  nature  of 
his  being?  From  the  dawn  of  creation,  man  has 
wrestled  with  time,  death,  and  decay,  and,  in  the 
unavailing  struggle,  has  passed  off  a  vanquished 
victim  of  their  imperishable  supremacy.  The 
law  of  change  is  written  in  fiery  letters  upon  the 


12  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

children  of  man,  and  the  science  of  biography 
reveals  nothing  lasting,  except  a  deathless  spirit 
and  the  immortal  handwriting  of  God  engraven 
upon  it. 

These  undying  elements  assume  less  perishable 
forms  in  families,  communities,  tribes,  nations, 
and  races.  A  sameness  of  institutions,  a  oneness 
in  language,  a  common  origin,  an  identity  of  in- 
terests, and  a  similarity  of  passions,  prejudices, 
and  feelings,  have  welded  vast  multitudes  into 
one  homogeneous  whole,  sometimes  under  the 
name  of  a  nation,  sometimes  under  that  of  a  race. 
And  this  mass  has  been  made  more  solid  by  the 
pressure  of  a  common  government  ;  yea,  it  has 
been  sanctified  by  religion,  and  rendered  seem- 
ingly indestructible  by  the  traditions  and  expe- 
rience of  ages.  But  the  same  overwhelming  power 
which  consigns  the  body  of  man  to  decomposition, 
and  emancipates  the  spirit  of  man  from  the  realms 
of  space,  asserts  its  irremovable  dominion,  and  lifts 
up  its  resistless  sceptre  over  laws  and  languages, 
nations  and  races,  republics  and  empires.  Na- 
tions with  all  their  characteristics  and  belongings 
have  appeared  in  youth,  and  manhood,  and  old 
age ;  have  been  buried  in  infancy,  in  bloom,  in 
Iongeval  decrepitude  ;  have  flourished  for  a  period 
and  disappeared,  or  have  vanished  after  alternat- 
ing  irregular   periods   of   national    strength   and 


Ethnography  and  its  Principles.       13 

feebleness.  As  the  Deluge  swept  the  surface  of 
the  earth,  and  in  one  place  rolled  it  up  into  moun- 
tains, and  in  another  left  dark  and  dayless  valleys 
and  ravines,  time  has  stormed  over  the  human 
family,  now  uplifting  races  into  mountains  before 
the  eyes  of  men,  and  now  submerging  them  from 
the  view  of  mankind.  It  is  something  both  sad 
and  grand  to  walk  by  the  shore  of  the  past,  and 
gaze  upon  the  wrecks  of  races  and  nations,  where 
time  hath  stranded  them  with  the  violence  of 
winds  and  waves.  It  is  pleasing  to  see  how,  over 
the  ruins  of  the  past,  the  ocean  of  humanity,  with 
renovated  energy,  keeps  tiding  on  evermore.  It 
is  instructive  to  study  how  ruin  has  spread  its 
black  wings  over  some  nations  under  the  fairest 
skies,  and  how  others  have  come  forth  from  the 
darkest  nights,  chastened  and  invigorated  by  tri- 
bulations and  dangers. 

And  while  the  races  of  the  human  family  roll 
before  us  from  age  to  age  like  the  restless  waters 
of  the  seas,  and  in  our  own  day  are  spread  out 
to  our  view  as  the  continents,  countries,  and 
islands  of  geography,  it  will  be  our  task  to  in- 
vestigate their  perishable  and  imperishable  ele- 
ments ;  to  discover  the  sources  of  life,  activity, 
and  longevity  ;  to  find  out  the  antidotes  of  decay, 
disintegration,  and  dissolution  ;  to  balance  their 
excellences  and  shortcomings ;  and  to  weigh  their 


14  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

relative  claims  and  merits  in  impartial  scales. 
The  science  of  ethnography  will  show  us  races 
and  nations  in  themselves,  and  how  they  have 
been  ordered  under  political  forms ;  will  enquire 
into  the  countries  they  have  inhabited,  how  they 
have  been  physically  developed,  how  they  have 
been  clothed,  how  fed,  how  housed  ;  will  examine 
how  their  manners  and  customs  have  been  estab- 
lished, how  their  language  and  religions  have 
been  settled,  what  has  been  their  intellectual, 
moral,  and  industrial  expansion.  And  as  no  race 
has  existed  in  an  absolutely  isolated  state,  it  will 
be  our  duty  to  determine  how  races  have  been 
related,  how  allied,  how  intermingled  ;  what  has 
been  their  origin,  what  their  migrations,  what 
their  history,  what  their  distinguishing  traits. 
There  are  two  races  that  shall  especially  call  our 
attention  and  exercise  our  judgment — the  one 
ancient  and  still  young,  the  other  young  and 
already  ancient ;  the  first  the  masters  of  an  island, 
the  second  the  lords  of  a  continent.  I  mean  the 
Irish  people  and  the  American  nation.  What  is 
the  character  of  the  American  nation,  and  what 
is  its  destiny  ?  What  are  the  characteristics  of 
the  Irish  race,  and  in  what  rank  does  Ireland 
stand  among  the  nations  ? 

There  are  three   sciences   which  have   a  very 
close  affinity — biography,    geography,   ethnogra- 


Ethnography  and  its  Principles.       15 

phy.  Biography  treats  of  the  individual,  geogra 
phy  of  his  home,  ethnography  of  his  nation  and 
race.  Thus  biography  and  geography  are  sub- 
elements  of  ethnography.  When  the  physical 
development,  the  clothes,  food,  and  dwelling,  the 
language  and  religion,  the  manners  and  customs, 
the  intellectual,  moral,  and  industrial  expansion 
of  the  individual  are  common  to  his  nation,  his 
biography  is  an  embryonic  ethnography.  And 
any  geographical  influences  on  the  history  of  his 
life,  arising  from  the  maritime  or  inland  position 
of  his  country,  from  a  prevalence  of  mountains  or 
of  plains,  of  rivers  and  lakes,  or  of  deserts  and 
arid  tracts,  will  leave  a  corresponding  impress 
upon  the  ethnography  of  his  nation  and  race.  As 
individuals  have  distinct  and  diverse  faculties  and 
capabilities,  virtues  and  failings,  preferences,  pas- 
sions and  peculiarities,  so  have  nations.  The 
individual  character  is  the  corner-stone  of  the 
national  type.  Do  we  wish  to  study  a  nation  ? 
Let  us  observe  the  individual  ;  the  generalization 
and  union  of  predominant  traits  will  give  the 
ideal  of  the  nation.  Of  course,  it  will  be  only  an 
ideal,  but  we  can  ascribe  to  it  spirit,  life,  action, 
will  ;  intelligence,  and  thought,  and  knowledge  ; 
feelings,  refinement,  sympathy,  and  all  the  quali- 
ties of  which  a  nation's  citizen  is  susceptible. 
And  while  a  nation  or  a  race,  as  an  agglomerate 


1 6  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

of  units,  is  subject  to  decay  and  destruction  like 
the  human  body,  the  union  of  spiritual  endow- 
ments, which  are  the  constituents  of  its  soul,  may 
be  indissoluble  and  immortal,  like  the  principle 
of  life  in  man.  Many  nations  have  perished 
whose  spirit  is  inherited  to-day. 

In  determining  the  character  of  a  race,  it  will 
be  useful  to  consider  the  formative  causes  by 
which  it  has  been  moulded.  Whether  it  has  been 
nurtured  on  inhospitable  shores,  and  born  and 
bred  amid  constant  labors  and  innumerable  dan- 
gers, as  that  of  the  American  nation,  or  whether 
it  has  lolled  in  the  lap  of  opulence  and  indolence, 
as  those  of  oriental  nations,  will  ever  after  tinge 
it  with  the  strong  light  of  energy  or  the  dark 
shades  of  effeminacy.  The  traditions  of  an  he- 
roic ancestry,  the  stirring  records  of  a  proud 
history,  and  the  splendid  inheritance  of  truth, 
principle,  virtue,  intelligence,  and  independence, 
have  an  indisputable  efficacy  on  the  spirit  of  a 
race.  Slavery  begets  lying;  oppression,  theft; 
intolerance,  hypocrisy ;  exclusiveness,  retrogres- 
sion. In  fact,  there  is  no  effect  without  a  cause  ; 
and,  as  Nature  is  positive  in  her  gifts  and  endow- 
ments, there  is  no  stain  on  a  national  character 
for  which  a  reason  does  not  exist.  There  are 
few  men  with  natural  deformities,  and  there  are 
fewer  national  characters  with  inborn  incongrui- 


Ethnography  and  its  Principles.       ij 

ties.  A  nation  has  for  the  most  part  suffered 
mutilation,  contortion,  or  paralysis  through  the 
work  of  man. 

Sometimes  causes  which  were  once  operative 
cease  to  exist,  and  the  results  which  followed 
them  on  national  characters  disappear  violently, 
gradually,  or  imperceptibly.  This  most  frequently 
happens  through  wars,  migrations,  revolutions, 
and  moral  abasement.  International  intercom- 
munication in  our  day  has  a  marvellous  effect 
upon  the  several  families  of  the  human  race.  The 
welding  and  transforming  powers  of  the  con- 
quests of  the  human  intellect  over  matter,  and 
especially  of  steam  and  electricity,  are  almost  in- 
calculable. There  is  a  retroactive  movement 
towards  the  unity  of  the  human  race,  which  was 
broken  and  splintered  by  the  barriers  of  moun- 
tains and  waters  and  by  the  inhumanity  of  man 
as  much  as  by  the  confusion  of  languages. 

As  it  is,  we  must  take  national  characters  in 
the  aggregate,  and  judge  justly,  standing  on  a 
cosmopolitan  platform,  uninfluenced  by  preju- 
dice, and  undismayed  in  the  assertion  of  truth 
and  justice.  As  no  man  is  without  faults,  and 
he  who  has  least  is  best,  so  no  national  character 
is  without  blurs,  blotches,  or  freckles  ;  and  where 
I  shall  find  fewest,  I  shall  give  most  praise.  I 
shall  respect  the   feelings  of  all   men  for   their 


1 8  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

government,  language,  and  religion ;  for  their 
country  and  history ;  for  their  laws,  institutions, 
customs,  and  civilization  ;  but  it  will  not  be  in  my 
power  to  give  unqualified  praise  to  any  nation  or 
race  that  has  hitherto  existed  under  the  sun. 
Some  races  excel  in  some  respects ;  others  in 
other  respects.  All  men  are  not  born  giants, 
poets,  astronomers,  orators,  mathematicians ;  nor 
has  any  nation  yet  appeared  shining  with  the 
fulness  of  perfections.  The  bravest  races  have 
been  the  justest  ;  the  most  intellectual,  the  most 
merciful ;  the  most  laborious,  the  most  bountiful ; 
the  most  voluptuous,  the  most  cruel,  cowardly, 
and  inhumane.  Yet  in  no  race,  or  people,  or 
nation  have  the  rays  of  the  Divinity  been  so  ex- 
tinguished that  religion,  and  justice,  and  human- 
ity may  not,  by  contact  or  impact,  communicate 
to  them  activity  and  life. 

As  the  study  of  families  and  communities  leads 
to  the  examination  of  races  and  nations,  so  inves- 
tigations on  national  families  will  conduct  to  God, 
their  great  Father,  who  is  the  Lord  of  popula- 
tions. Under  His  eye,  nations  and  races  advance 
and  recede ;  are  allied,  and  intermingled,  and 
isolated  ;  are  born,  and  perish.  The  great  Ruler, 
who  has  divided  the  waters  of  the  earth  into 
oceans,  and  rivers,  and  lakes,  and  assigned  them 
their  laws,  has  laid  down  boundaries  for  the  races 


Ethnography  and  its  Principles.       19 

of  men,  and  appointed  them  their  times  of  wan- 
dering and  their  abodes  of  resting.  While  we 
are  rolled  on  to  eternity  in  the  race  to  which  we 
belong,  like  atoms  in  an  ocean,  we  should  lift 
our  eyes  to  the  Father  of  races,  who  is  a  con- 
stant sun  pouring  down  his  light  upon  us,  and 
follow  what  we  see  highest,  purest,  most  holy, 
and  most  heavenly  in  all  races,  nations,  tribes, 
systems,  languages,  and  ages.  Would  that  the 
whole  human  family  were  one  in  truth,  justice, 
and  humanity ;  beautiful  in  peace,  joyful  in  hope  ; 
and  would  roll  with  united  ocean  power  into 
eternity,  unto  the  bosom  of  its  Father,  never 
more  to  suffer  disunion  or  disintegration  !  For 
this  the  church  was  founded,  and  for  this  Christ 
died. 


CHAPTER   II. 

ETHNOGRAPHY   AND   THE    EARLY   DIVISIONS   OF 
THE   HUMAN   RACE. 

OMEWHERE  under  the  clear  skies 
of  Southwestern  Asia,  on  the  banks 
of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates,  God 
planted  a  paradise  of  pleasure.  In 
it  He  placed  the  germ  of  the  human  family,  in 
the  persons  of  two  healthy,  happy,  and  immortal 
vegetarians  called  Adam  and  Eve.  There  was 
nothing  to  glad  the  eye,  or  charm  the  senses,  or 
shed  joy  on  the  human  heart  which  His  bounti- 
ful providence  did  not  lavish  on  them.  They 
enjoyed  the  aroma  of  the  sweetest  flowers  ;  they 
banqueted  on  the  choicest  fruits ;  they  held  con- 
verse with  God  and  His  ministering  angels ;  and 
their  life  was  one  of  love,  and  peace,  and  endless 
bliss,  and  untold  pleasures.  But  falling  from 
their  high  estate,  they  forfeited  their  immortality, 
and  brought  death  into  the  world,  with  its  innu- 
merable train  of  woes.  How  the  protoparents 
were  degraded ;  how  they  were  exiled  from 
Eden  ;  how  there  was  fratricide  ;  how  their  pos- 
terity were  divided  into  the  children  of  God  and 


Early  Divisions.  21 

the  children  of  men  ;  how  the  union  of  the  chil- 
dren of  light  and  the  children  of  men  begot 
giants  ;  how  those  giants  lived,  and  warred,  and 
were  multiplied,  has  been  dimly  and  obscurely 
limned  in  the  poetry,  traditions,  and  histories  of 
many  nations.  The  nations  of  the  West  look  to  the 
East  for  the  original  abodes  of  their  ancestors, 
and  the  peoples  of  the  far  East  point  westward 
to  the  primeval  habitations  of  their  forefathers. 
Outside  of  the  fictions,  poetic  fancies,  and  philo- 
sophical speculations,  which  trace  a  dark  and  far 
distant  connection  with  the  Adamite  period  of 
the  human  race,  the  antediluvian  division  of  men 
is  without  influence  on  mankind  as  at  present 
constituted. 

On  the  high  table-lands  of  Aram,  Armenia,  or 
Irania,  where  the  ark  of  Noe  rested,  we  find  the 
water- sheds  of  the  human  race.  The  lofty  moun- 
tain ranges  from  the  Caspian  Sea  to  the  Arctic 
Ocean  and  the  Bay  of  Bengal  seem  to  have  di- 
vided the  races  of  men  as  the  backbone  does  the 
human  body.  The  successive  waves  of  migration 
followed  the  rising  and  the  setting  sun  in  oppo- 
site directions  from  Ararat.  The  current  west- 
ward was  divided  into  three  streams,  of  which  the 
first,  running  southwest,  was  broken  by  the  Red 
Sea,  and  spread  abroad  over  Africa  and  Arabia ; 
the  second  passed  along  the  southern  shore  of  the 


22  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

Black  Sea,  and  occupied  the  peninsulas  on  the 
northern  coast  of  the  Mediterranean  ;  and  the 
third  was  poured  out  from  the  highlands  between 
the  Black  and  Caspian  Seas  over  the  steppes  of 
Sarmatia.  Eastward  from  Ararat  flowed  a  vast 
wave  of  the  human  family  along  the  southern 
peninsulas  of  Asia — that  is,  Eastern  Arabia,  Hin- 
dostan,  and  Malaya — while  immense  multitudes 
must  have  passed  from  the  plateau  of  Iran  towards 
the  eastern  shores  of  Asia,  as  well  as  by  the  Sea 
of  Aral  along  the  lowlands  east  of  the  Ural 
Mountains,  towards  the  sources  of  the  great 
rivers  which  disembogue  into  the  Arctic  Ocean. 
The  continent  of  America  and  the  multitudin- 
ous isles  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  seem  to  have  been 
originally  peopled  by  the  westerly  and  easterly 
onflow  of  the  human  family.  We  find  that  the 
physical  conformations  of  the  African,  Mongolian, 
and  Polynesian  have  a  close  affinity,  while  that 
of  the  native  American  approaches  to  the  Cau- 
casian. 

On  the  whole,  the  tide  of  the  human  family 
seems  to  have  been  along  the  temperate  zone. 
But  there  were  four  points  that  possessed  a  pecu- 
liar and  isolated  grandeur  :  the  far  West,  where 
the  sun  reposed  ;  the  orient,  where  his  rays  first 
shone  ;  the  torrid  regions,  where  his  rays  were 
fiercest ;  and  the  cold  North,  where  his  influence 


Early  Divisions,  23 

ivas  almost  unknown.  Poets  of  Western  nations 
placed  the  homes  of  the  blessed  in  some  lands 
west  of  Europe ;  the  songs  of  the  Orientals  were 
enlivened  with  the  fairy-lands  of  a  far-away,  happy 
Orient.  There  is  something  sad  in  the  history 
of  those  tribes  who  have  struggled  with  the  fiery 
heats  of  the  South,  and  approached  the  lands 
where  human  life  was  supposed  to  become  ex- 
tinct through  the  scorching  and  unendurable 
nature  of  the  temperature ;  and  there  is  some- 
thing sombre  in  those  hardy  peoples  whose  ener- 
gies have  battled  with  the  cold,  and  whose  homes 
have  been  free  in  their  icy  isolation. 

The  nations  which  travelled  eastward  from 
Irania  have  been  endowed  with  patient  and  abid- 
ing natures,  imbued  with  a  wonderfully  tenacious 
conservatism,  and  gifted  with  fine  and  almost 
microscopic  perceptions.  The  races  whose  course 
was  westward  were  bold,  resolute,  and  energetic. 
Insatiable  in  their  ambitions  and  acquisitions, 
they  despised  what  they  had  acquired,  and  ever 
yearned  for  more.  Towards  the  East,  the  memory 
appears  to  have  been  developed  at  the  expense 
of  the  intellect,  while  the  intelligence  of  Western 
nations  has  been  led  by  the  imagination  rather 
than  recollection.  Thus  it  has  come  to  pass  that 
Oriental  religions  and  civilizations  have  lasted 
through  thousands  of  years,  while  Western  reli- 


24  Ireland  among  the  Nations, 

gions  and  civilizations  have  perished  or  changed 
within  almost  as  many  hundreds. 

Notwithstanding  the  changes  which  have  ta- 
ken  place  since  God  placed  Adam  and  Eve  in 
Paradise,  and  the  myriad  causes  that  have  been 
working  since  the  posterity  of  Noe  scattered 
abroad  over  the  earth,  from  the  highlands  of 
Aram  away  into  all  lands  and  climes,  »there  is 
no  intrinsic  difference  so  great,  no  variations  so 
strange,  among  all  the  races  of  men,  as  to  destroy 
the  unity  of  the  human  family.  The  stricter  the 
investigation,  the  more  evident  will  be  the  con- 
clusion that  all  races  originally  were  one,  and 
should  now  be  one,  in  humanity  towards  one 
another  and  praise  to  the  Great  Father  who  has 
given  them  the  whole  earth  for  an  inheritance. 


CHAPTER  III. 

ETHNOGRAPHY  AND  THE  VARIATIONS   OF   RACES 
IN  THE  LAPSE  OF  AGES. 

N  the  history  of  mankind,  God's  people 
has  always  held  the  most  important 
position.  Before  the  coming  of  Christ, 
the  Jews  must  be  considered  the  most 
prominent  people  of  the  world  ;  and,  since  the 
delivery  of  the  new  Revelation  to  the  world,  their 
grand  privileges  have  been  inherited  by  Christian 
nations.  Outside  of  the  Hebrew  and  Christian 
people,  there  existed  nations  and  empires,  with 
great  natural  virtues,  unbounded  sway,  and 
unparallelled  wealth  and  magnificence ;  yet  they 
seem  to  have  flourished  solely  for  the  purpose  of 
facilitating  the  accomplishment  of  the  destinies 
of  God's  chosen  people.  The  great  Asiatic  em- 
pires of  antiquity,  and  the  marauding  kingdoms 
conterminous  with  Palestine,  were  at  times  a 
scourge,  at  times  an  annoyance,  and  at  times  an 
instrument  of  glory  {n  God's  dealings  with  the 
Jews.  The  Roman  Empire  expedited  the  pro- 
mulgation of  Christianity  to  the  whole  world  ; 
and  the  barbarian  hordes  of  the  North  were  the 


26  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

means  of  planting  the  Christian  religion  in   Eu- 
rope, amidst   a  new   society   of  nations,  on   the 
ruins   of  what   had   passed    away.     Ireland    and 
Byzantium,  at   opposite   ends   of  the   continent, 
the  one  secure  by  its  encircling  belt  of  ocean,  the 
other  by  its  fortified  and  naturally  impregnable 
location,  seem  to  have  h?d  especial  missions  in 
connection  with  the  Christian  church.     With  the 
going  down  of  the  Roman   Empire,  in  the  fifth 
century,  the  star  of  Ireland  rose,  and  continued 
to  shed  light  to  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  era  of 
the  church  ;  but  when  the  light  of  faith  and  learn- 
ing had  been  relit  on  the  Continent  in  the  days  of 
Charlemagne,  the  Danes  and  Northmen  well-nigh 
extinguished  it  on  the  Island  of  Saints  and  Scho- 
lars.    After  the  Byzantine  Empire  had  opposed 
the   spread    of   Mohammedanism,  and  delivered 
over  the  surviving  treasures  of  ancient  civilization 
to  the  returning  Crusaders,  Constantinople  went 
down  before  the  arms  of  the  Mussulman,  and  the 
crescent  was  planted  on  the  church  of  St.  Sophia. 
Through  the  long  period  of  its  existence  as  a 
nation,  spreading  over  nearly  two  thousand  years — ■ 
that  is,  from  the  going  down  of  Jacob  into  Egypt 
to  the  overthrow  of  Jerusalem   by  Titus — Israel 
occupied   a  singular  and   extraordinary   relation- 
ship to  the  human  family.     Being  the  depositary 
of  God's  truth,  and  the  vessel  of  election,  it  lived 


The   Variations  of  Races.  2  J 

for  mankind,  but  did  not  mingle  with  men,  since 
intercourse  was  contamination  and  disaster.  The 
strength  of  Israel  lay  in  its  obedience  to  the  law 
of  Moses,  and  seemed  to  grow  in  proportion  to  its 
narrowness  and  isolation.  It  is  wonderful  how 
nations,  empires,  races,  and  religions  changed  and 
drifted,  like  a  sea  of  sand,  according  as  Jehovah 
loved,  hated,  or  was  jealous  of  Israel,  the  nation 
which  he  had  chosen  to  be  his  spouse.  The 
House  of  Jacob  was  the  axis  around  which  all 
the  destinies  of  ancient  heathendom  revolved. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  strength  of  the  new 
Israel,  the  Christian  church,  lay  in  its  catholicity. 
Being  spread  over  the  whole  world,  it  might,  like 
the  ocean,  retire  at  points,  only  to  make  encroach- 
ments elsewhere  ;  but  at  all  times  since  its  birth, 
it  has  throbbed  through  the  human  race  with 
ocean  pulse  and  with  unimpaired  universality. 
The  Mosaic  dispensation  was  the  corner-stone  of 
Israel  in  Asia,  the  land  of  Shem  ;  the  covenant 
of  Christ  was  the  foundation  of  the  new  Israel  in 
Europe,  the  land  of  Japheth.  As  the  destinies 
of  Asiatic  races  circled  round  the  Israel  of  Moses, 
so  the  Israel  of  Christ  seems  to  have  been  the 
touchstone  of  the  destinies  of  European  peoples. 
The  heathenish  races,  contemporaries  of  imperial 
Rome,  melted  away,  leaving  the  church  in  youth 
and  vigor ;  and  a  new  offspring  of  races  was  born 


28  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

from  her  intercourse  with  the  barbarian  conquer- 
ors of  the  North,  whose  descendants  rule  the 
world  in  our  day.  The  tendency  of  the  church  is  to 
break  down  the  wall  of  separation  between  nation 
and  nation,  between  race  and  race,  and  to  consoli- 
date the  human  family,  not  by  brutal  force,  after 
the  fashion  of  the  old  Romans,  but  by  the  weld- 
ing and  assimilating  influences  of  love,  humanity, 
and  enlightenment.  When  all  tongues,  and  tribes, 
and  races  shall  acknowledge  a  common  Saviour 
and  be  members  of  the  same  church,  then  man- 
kind shall  be  a  body  of  which  Christ  shall  be 
the  head  ;  and  if  any  member  glory,  all  the 
members  shall  glory  with  it ;  and  if  any  member 
suffer,  all  the  members  shall  suffer  with  it,  because 
the  charity  of  Christ  quickens,  animates,  and  im- 
pels the  whole  frame.  Why  should  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Teheran  or  Patagonia  put* on  sack-cloth 
and  ashes,  and  fall  victims  to  starvation,  while  the 
granaries  of  Chicago  and  Odessa  are  groaning  with 
grain  ?  Why  should  the  nations  of  Asia  and 
Africa  walk  in  the  ways  of  error,  ignorance,  and 
misery,  while  there  is  the  light  of  religion,  civiliza- 
tion, and  happiness  in  Europe  and  America  ? 

Our  age  is  remarkable  for  the  subjugation  of 
matter  to  mind,  and  for  the  facilities  of  inter- 
Communication.  Manual  labor  has  been  super- 
seded by  inventions,  matter  being  made  to  work 


The   Variations  of  Races,  29 

on  matter,  and  the  power  of  steam  has  conquered 
distance,  whether  on  land  or  sea.  Nation  speaks 
to  nation,  and,  by  means  of  the  telegraph  and 
the  press,  holds  converse  and  discussion  on  the 
rights  .and  destinies  of  men  and  races.  Never 
since  the  foundation  of  the  world  has  truth  had 
such  facilities  for  propagation,  and  humanity  such 
opportunities  to  assert  its  sway.  Let  us  hope  the 
Church  of  Christ  will  push  its  triumphs  over  the 
yet  unconquered  territories  of  the  globe,  and  that 
tyrants  who  have  sat  like  a  nightmare  on  popula- 
tions will  open  their  eyes  to  acknowledge  the 
inalienable  rights  of  mankind.  Let  us  hope  that 
the  railroad,  the  steamboat,  the  telegraph,  and  the 
press  are  the  keys  to  unlock  the  gates  of  light 
for  the  myriads  of  heathen  Asia  and  Africa.  Let 
us  hope  that,  in  the  roll  and  rumble  of  races,  our 
own  Irish  nation  will  push  forward  with  a  noble 
rivalry  of  the  American  people,  as  the  champion 
of  truth,  justice,  religion,  civilization,  and  hu- 
manity. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE   SCYTHIANS  AND   THE   CELTS. 

HERE  is  something  dismal  and  unde- 
fined about  the  history  of  the  people 
which  originally  settled  in  the  lands 
north  of  the  Black  and  Caspian  Seas, 
and  whose  ramifications  indefinitely  penetrated 
the  heart  of  inner  Asia.  As  the  unknown  and 
the  exaggerated  are  closely  allied,  the  imagina- 
tions of  surrounding  peoples  have  drawn  the  most 
monstrous  pictures  of  this  wild,  brutal,  and  daring 
race,  descended  from  Magog,  the  son  of  Japheth, 
to  which  the  name  Scythians,  a  general  term  for 
savages,  has  been  applied.  Josephus  says  they 
delighted  in  murder,  and  differed  little  from  wild 
beasts.  Their  ferocity,  drunkenness,  and  anger 
were  well  known  to  the  Hebrews  and  the  Greeks, 
and  made  them  a  terrible  enemy.  The  prophet 
Ezechiel  gives  a  horrific  description  of  this  people. 
The  Lord  puts  a  bit  in  its  jaws,  and  brings  forth 
all  its  army,  horses,  and  horsemen,  all  clothed 
with  mail,  armed  with  shields,  and  spears,  and 
swords.  The  Lord  judges  it  with  pestilence,  and 
with  blood,  and  with  violent  rain,  and  with  vast 


The  Scythians  and  the  Celts.         3 1 

hailstones,  and  rains  down  fire  and  brimstone  upon 
the  whole  army.  The  Lord  calls  Israel  to  set  on 
fire  its  weapons,  its  shields,  its  spears,  its  bows 
and  arrows,  its  hand-staves,  and  its  pikes.  The 
Lord  assembles  the  birds  of  the  air  and  the  beasts 
of  the  field  to  banquet  on  this  Scythian  victim 
which  he  prepares  for  them,  to  eat  flesh  and  to 
drink  blood,  to  grow  fat  and  be  full  and  be  drunk 
with  the  blood  of  horses,  and  mighty  horsemen, 
and  men  of  war.  Jeremias  in  a  vision  sees  the 
Scythians  coming  from  the  north  as  a  lion  from 
his  den,  and  calls  them  the  robber  of  nations,  a 
cruel  people  without  mercy,  armed  with  arrows 
and  shields,  mounted  upon  horses,  warriors  whose 
voices  are  like  the  roar  of  the  sea.  The  Scythians 
led  a  nomadic  life,  and  were  ruled  by  savage  kings 
or  chiefs,  to  whom  they  paid  great  honors.  They 
have  been  described  as  eating  human  flesh,  drink- 
ing human  blood,  and  using  human  skulls  as 
drinking-cups.  Dressed  in  the  skins  of  beasts, 
having  no  towns  or  villages,  worshipping  the  gods 
of  war,  lust,  and  adventure,  they  were  known 
from  the  earliest  antiquity  as  a  brave,  fearless, 
and  independent  people. 

The  Scythians  originally  settled  by  the  Caspian 
and  Black  Seas,  spread  eastward  over  the  vast, 
sandy  plains  of  Asia,  and  westward  across  the 
immense  steppes  of  Russia,  under  the  name  of 


32  Ireland  among  the  Nations, 

Sarmatians.  A  few  years  anterior  to  the  taking 
of  Jerusalem  by  Nebuchodonosor,  about  600  B.C., 
the  Scythians  passed  through  Palestine  into 
Egypt,  and  are  said  to  have  founded  the  city  of 
Scythopolis.  The  greatest  conquerors  of  anti- 
quity, such  as  Cyrus,  Darius,  and  Alexander, 
attempted  to  subdue  the  Scythians,  and  failed. 
Their  descendants,  under  different  names,  over- 
flooded  and  submerged  the  Roman  Empire  in 
after-ages ;  and  from  the  lands  once  peopled  by 
them  came  forth  in  still  later  ages  the  monster 
hordes  that  followed  the  leadership  of  Zenghis 
Khan  and  Tamerlane.  The  name  of  the  Scyth- 
ians disappears  from  history  about  the  seventh 
century,  but  it  has  been  the  parent  stock  of  the 
races  which  peopled  central  Europe  and  Asia. 

Though  the  Scythians  have  been  set  down  as  a 
savage  nation,  ignorant  of  laws  except  the  will  of 
leaders,  rude  in  manners,  and  without  cultivation 
in  its  dialects,  it  has  given  hardy,  healthy,  and 
valorous  races  to  Europe,  and,  as  a  parent  stock 
of  huge  populations,  deserves  the  consideration 
of  mankind.  When  Asiatic  luxury  and  effemi- 
nacy had  abased  Roman  intelligence,  and  cor- 
rupted Roman  purity,  and  undermined  Roman 
integrity,  the  descendants  of  the  Scythians,  in 
their  careers  of  conquests,  imported  into  Europe 
young,  fresh  brains,  and  built  up  a  renovated  so- 


The  Scythians  and  the  Celts.         33 

ciel.y.  One  offshoot  of  the  Scythian  family  was 
the  Celtic  race  in  Ireland,  whether  it  reached 
that  island  by  Egypt  and  Spain — an  allusion, 
perhaps,  to  the  expedition  of  the  Scythians 
under  Psammeticus  into  Egypt — or  whether  it 
travelled  over  the  main-land  through  Gaul  and 
Britain  into  Scotia. 

There  are,  we  confess,  points  of  resemblance 
between  the  Scythians  and  Celts.  They  seem  to 
have  had  the  same  passion  for  war,  to  have  used 
similar  weapons,  and  to  have  been  alike  suscepti- 
ble of  the  impulses  for  danger  and  adventure.  It 
is  certain  that  the  Celts  were  never  stained  with 
the  savage  cruelty,  brutal  ferocity,  and  inhuman 
customs  which  have  been  ascribed  to  the  Scyth- 
ians. Some  writers  have  described  the  Scythians 
as  a  people  of  great  moderation,  eminent  purity, 
and  unstained  character.  They  are  said  to  have 
lived  on  diet  prepared  with  milk,  and  to  have 
been  exceedingly  just  and  religious.  It  may  be 
that  a  wave  of  the  Scythian  family  with  those 
attributes  passed  westward  and  became  the  proto- 
parent  of  the  Celts  in  Gaul,  Spain,  Britain,  and 
Scotia.  The  sublime  pantheism  in  religion,  the 
patriarchal  simplicity  in  manners,  and  the  high 
degree  of  civilization  which  existed  among  the 
Celts  could  scarcely  be  set  down  as  characteris- 
tics of  the   descendants   of  ruthless  savages  not 


34  Ireland  among  the  Nations, 

far  removed  from  the  condition  of  wild  beasts. 
Yet  there  is  abundant  historical  authority  to 
show  that  government,  organized  society,  obe- 
dience to  law,  and  great  excellence  in  poetry, 
music,  and  learning  flourished  among  the  Celts. 
They  had,  moreover,  schools,  towns,  splendid  resi- 
dences, temples,  regular  organization  for  war,  ex- 
tensive commerce,  with  many  other  indubitable 
indications  of  a  high  and  far-advanced  civilization. 
In  no  place  did  the  original  stream  of  the  Celtic 
family  remain  so  long  unpolluted  as  in  Scotia — ■ 
that  is,  Abania  and  Erin — and  nowhere  was  there 
a  nearer  approach  to  the  sublime  doctrines  of 
Christianity  than  in  the  lives,  laws,  and  society 
of  the  Scotico-Celtic  descendants  of  the  Scyth- 
ians. 


CHAPTER   V. 

THE    HEBREWS. 

OD'S  people  !  What  an  inspiring  name  ! 
Theirs  was  the  adoption  as  of  chil- 
dren. To  them  belonged  the  land 
which  Jehovah  loved,  for  which  he 
worked  manifold  miracles,  and  in  the  possession 
of  which  he  placed  them.  Theirs  was  the  sacred 
city,  the  habitation  which  the  Lord  chose  for 
himself — Jerusalem  !  To  them  belonged  the  pro- 
phets, their  inspiration,  and  an  inheritance  which 
they  left  them  of  the  future,  not  of  the  past — an 
inheritance  of  things  that  were  to  be.  O  Jerusa- 
lem !  thine  was  the  glory,  thine  were  the  kings  ac- 
cording to  God's  heart,  and  thine  were  the  bones 
of  the  saints  !  O  Jerusalem  !  thou  wert  the  child 
of  Abraham,  of  Isaac,  and  of  Jacob,  of  David, 
and  Josias,  and  Jehosaphat  !  The  promises, 
and  the  sprinkling  of  blood,  and  the  covenant, 
and  the  mighty  works  of  the  God  of  Israel  were 
for  thee  !  Had  it  been  heard  from  ages  that  the 
children  of  a  nation  could  lift  its  eyes  to  heaven 
and  speak  to  the  God  of  the  living  as  its  temporal 
king?     To  whom  was  it  given   that  the  children 


36  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

of  men  should  act  immediately  under  the  light 
of  God's  face  without  the  interposition  of  the 
dark  shadows  of  human  authority  ?  Thine  was 
glory,  thine  was  power,  and  thine  was  close  con- 
verse with  the  heart  of  the  Lord  of  the  universe. 
Yes,  more — thine  was  the  promise  !  The  mystery 
which  was  hidden  from  generations  and  empires, 
which  St.  Paul  was  the  first  to  manifest  to  the 
powers  in  the  high  places  of  heaven,  was  thine  by 
inheritance,  and  thine  by  fulfilment.  God's  peo- 
ple !  For  you  Christ  wept,  and  for  you  St.  Paul 
wished  to  be  an  anathema.  Had  you  known  the 
Lord  of  glory,  as  a  mighty  man  of  your  nation, 
your  religion,  and  your  blood  declared,  you  would 
never  have  crucified  Him.  What  was  poverty  to 
you  was  riches  to  us  ;  what  was  exile  to  you  was 
adoption  to  us  ;  what  was  shame  to  you  was  our 
glory  ! 

From  the  first,  O  Israel !  thou  wert  a  stiff- 
necked  people,  and  loath  to  bear  the  yoke  of 
the  Lord.  As  the  teachers  of  truth,  I  believe 
you.  As  the  children  of  Abraham,  and  Isaac, 
and  Jacob,  and  the  chosen  ones  of  the  living  and 
Almighty  Lord,  I  am  proud  to  be  your  spiritual 
child.  As  the  forsaken  of  Jehovah,  I  mourn  for 
you.  As  the  persecuted  of  nations,  I  wish  to  de- 
fend and  befriend  you. 

Where  were  thy  faults?     In  sin  and  rebellion. 


The  Hebrews.  3  J 

Who  has  not  sinned  ?  Who  has  not  rebelled  ? 
If  Joseph  was  sold  into  Egypt,  and  if  Joseph,  by 
subjecting  the  Egyptians  with  houses,  lands, 
liberties,  and  individualities,  to  Pharao  taught  an 
Egyptian  how  to  oppress  his  own  people,  was  it 
wonderful  that  a  Pharao  arose  who  knew  not  Jo- 
seph, but  pursued  his  policy  to  the  detriment  of 
God's  people  ?  Merciful  is  the  heart  of  the 
Most  High ;  for  he  sent  his  servant  Moses  to  set 
his  people  free  in  power,  in  wisdom,  and  in  mar- 
vels .for  all  generations.  Was  not  Moses  faithful 
in  the  house  of  God  ?  He  left  his  people  safe  by 
the  banks  of  the  Jordan,  and  passed  away  in 
glory  from  Nebo's  lonely  mountain.  Was  Josue, 
the  son  of  Nun,  faithful  in  the  house  of  God? 
Was  Josue  or  his  people  ever  punished  for  con- 
ciliation with  those  that  bowed  down  before  the 
God  of  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob?  Had 
the  people  of  Canaan  received  the  people  of  God, 
would  the  Lord  have  commanded  extermination  ? 
Did  God  destroy  the  penitential  Ninivites?  But 
as  charity  begets  charity,  so  cruelty  begets  cru- 
elty ;  and  the  unconverted,  undestroyed,  and  per- 
secuted remnants  of  the  seven  nations  originally 
doomed  to  annihilation  remained  evermore  a  woe 
unto  Israel. 

Of  all  the   faults  of  Juda  and  Jerusalem,  the 
greatest  were  pride  and  thoughtlessness.     Elated 


38  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

by  success  and  weighed  down  by  disaster,  they 
were  ready  to  cry  out  hosannah  to  Jehovah  or  to 
Beelzebub.     Possessing    a    proud    consciousness 
that  they  were  the  children  of  God,  they  dared 
to   blaspheme  when  a  people   less   proud  would 
have  put  on  sackcloth  and  ashes.     And,  further- 
more, the  more  outtopping  was  their  haughtiness, 
the  baser  and  more  despicable  were  their  abase- 
ment and  prostration.     They  lacked  the  inward 
consciousness    of   manhood,    though    they   could 
never   lose   the   tenaciousness   of  disdain.     With 
this   ill-sustained  conceit   of  the   Hebrew  nation 
was    linked    a    gross    and    material    selfishness. 
Wherever  Moses  had  allowed  them  a  loop-hole 
to  make  money  ;  wherever  Moses   granted  them 
authority  over  their  own  fellow-citizens,  the  chil- 
dren of  God  and  their  own  coequals ;  wherever 
Moses  had  allowed  them  to  pursue  the  policy  of 
Joseph  in   Egypt  towards  foreigners,  they  hesi- 
tated   not    to    gratify    their    cupidity,  their    am- 
bition, and   their    inhumanity.      Who    is    proud, 
and    thoughtless,  and    selfish    without    being   an 
alien   from   Almighty  God  !     The  splendid  gov- 
ernment which   the  kind  heart  of  Jehovah  gave 
his    people,    whereby    every    man    was    his    own 
interpreter    of    the     Mosaic    law,    and    was    re- 
sponsible   for    his    external    acts    only,  and   that 
before  a  council  of  the  elders  of  his  people — not 


The  Hebrews.  39 

in  star-chamber,  but  at  the  gates  before  the  peo- 
ple— was,  alas  !  discarded  by  this  fickle  nation. 
The  holy  Samuel  went  into  a  quasi-rebellion 
against  Jehovah  before  he  assented  to  the  su- 
perimposition  of  a  king.  The  command  of  God 
silenced  him,  saying :  "  Samuel,  they  have  re- 
belled, not  against  you,  but  against  me.  Give 
them  a  king."  Even  afterwards  Samuel  mourned 
before  the  assembled  tribes  of  Jacob  over  the 
unutterable  calamities  which  his  countrymen 
had  called  down  on  themselves  in  discarding 
Jehovah's  republican  form  of  government.  The 
woes  pronounced  by  Samuel  fell  on  Israel. 

Did  not  the  Hebrews  have  a  plenitude  of  laws 
without  demanding  the  enactments  of  a  kingly, 
that  is,  a  human  authority  ?  Removed  so  far 
from  the  Israelites  in  space,  distant  from  them 
by  such  a  vast  gulf  in  time,  incapable  of  appre- 
ciating their  circumstances,  and  destitute  of  the 
materials  to  lay  down  the  data  for  a  correct  con- 
clusion, we  find  it  difficult  from  a  human  point 
of  view  to  pass  judgment  on  the  Mosaic  legisla- 
tion. It  is  surely  comprehensive  in  scope  and 
far-reaching  in  details.  Its  underlying  idea  is 
divinely  constituted  authority ;  and  it  may  be 
safely  asserted  that  its  several  enactments  have 
withstood  the  strictest  scrutiny  of  generations 
and  races.     It  was  wise  and  holy  for  its  people 


40  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

and  its  time  ;  but  we  have  testimony  that  it  was 
grossly  misinterpreted  after  the  lapse  of  thousands 
of  years  by  Christian  denominations,  and  notably 
by  Cromwell  in  Ireland.  We  hope  no  age  shall 
witness  it  evermore. 

But  in  all  the  sad  and  checkered  history  of 
God's  people,  who  is  there  to-day  that  does  not 
feel  for  them  ?  It  is  a  strange  fact  that,  since  the 
days  the  Hebrews  set  aside  the  republic  of 
God  against  the  protest  of  the  prophet  Samuel, 
they  never  found  breathing-time  till  the  Repub- 
lic of  France,  and  they  never  found  rest  till 
their  advent  in  the  Republic  of  America,  which 
is  now  embedded  amidst  the  nations  of  the  world 
as  an  island  in  the  ocean.  Tribulation  has  been 
the  part  of  the  sons  of  Abraham  according  to  the 
flesh  ;  and  shame  on  the  Christians  who  persecuted 
the  people  of  their  Redeemer  ! 

To-day  we  see  the  Hebrews  scattered  the  world 
over,  in  all  climes,  among  all  races,  subjects  of 
every  government,  and  speaking,  not  the  sacred 
language  of  Jerusalem,  but  the  tongues  of  all  the 
tribes  under  the  sun.  Who  is  like  to  them  ?  The 
Irish  race,  God's  chosen  people  under  the  new 
dispensation,  the  new  Israel  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment !  Were  the  Hebrews  an  ancient  race  ?  So 
are  the  Irish.  Were  the  Hebrews  a  persecuted 
race?     So   are   the    Irish.      Were   the    Hebrews 


The  Hebrews.  41 

exiled  from  fatherland  for  faith  ?  So  were  the 
Irish.  Did  the  Hebrews  suffer  martyrdom  by 
land  and  sea,  in  deserts,  and  mountains,  and 
caves,  at  the  hands  of  false  friends  and  open 
enemies  ?  So  did  the  Irish.  Have  the  He- 
brews been  scattered  among  the  nations  of  the 
earth,  from  the  rising  to  the  setting  sun,  for  the 
cause  of  old  Israel  ?  Yes.  And  have  not  the 
Irish  borne  testimony  to  the  new  Israel  over 
oceans  and  continents  ?  Have  not  the  He- 
brews found  rest  and  liberty  and  recognition 
of  their  manhood  on  this  continent  after  thou- 
sands of  years  of  persecution,  injustice,  and 
degradation  ?  So  have  the  Irish.  May  God's 
people  of  both  Testaments  prove  themselves 
worthy  of  this  great  and  good  republic,  and 
may  a  happy  destiny  await  them  and  it  in 
the   future  ! 


CHAPTER   VI. 

ANCIENT  ASIA. 

HE  name  of  ancient  Asia  awakens  in 
the  mind  a  feeling  of  the  gigantesque 
and  the  fabulously  grand.  We  gaze 
^8  back  through  the  vista  of  thousands 
of  years  with  mingled  wonder  and  incredulity  at 
the  huge  realms  which  existed  on  this  empire- 
continent  ;  and,  while  we  are  bewildered  at  their 
grandeurs  and  glories,  we  recoil  from  the  folly, 
shame,  and  degradation  which  they  present. 
The  human  family  seemed  to  exist  to  humor 
the  caprice  of  some  ruler  or  conqueror  who  had 
arrogated  to  himself  the  right  of  the  human  race. 
The  toils,  the  lives,  the  properties,  and  the  con- 
sciences of  men  were  his  playthings.  Whole 
populations  were  drawn  from  their  homes  to 
make  a  wide  Calvary  at  his  pleasure,  or  wearied, 
and  sickened,  and  died  in  building  immense  works 
to  satisfy  his  vanity.  Together  with  the  pomp 
and  magnificence  of  battles,  banquets,  and  tri- 
umphs for  kings  and  conquerors,  comes  from  the 
long-buried  past  of  Asia  the  wail  of  the  widow, 


Ancient  Asia.  43 

the  sigh  of  the  captive,  the  groan  of  the  slave, 
the  mourning  of  the  orphan  and  the  oppressed, 
the  million  multitude  of  human  woes  sounding 
like  the  roar  of  many  waters.  It  is  sad  to  think 
how  kings  and  tyrants  took  away  from  the  world 
the  light  of  truth,  the  voice  of  gladness,  and  the 
joys  of  life  ;  how  men  were  brutalized,  and  made 
at  once  idolaters  and  slaves  ;  how  the  millions  ex- 
isted to  pander  to  the  follies  and  passions  of  the 
few. 

What  compensation  were  the  splendors  of 
Ninive  and  Babylon  for  the  miseries  on  which 
they  were  built  ?  —  ruined  homes,  slaughtered 
myriads,  plundered  provinces,  and  degraded  hu- 
manity !  The  government  of  Assyria  was  never 
a  centralized  authority,  such  as  afterwards  existed 
in  Persia,  and  still  more  in  Rome,  but  was  a  union 
of  kings  or  chiefs  who  paid  homage  and  tribute 
to  the  great  king.  The  Assyrians  worshipped 
thirteen  great  gods,  the  chief  of  whom  was 
Asshur,  the  deified  founder  of  their  nations, 
and  a  number  of  minor  divinities.  Their  reli- 
gion was  a  sensual  and  degrading  polytheism. 
They  seem  to  have  made  great  advances  in  the 
arts  and  civilization,  as  was  shown  in  the  two 
magnificent  cities  which  they  built.  It  is  said 
that  Ninive  was  a  quadrangle,  seventeen  and 
three-fourth  miles  by  eleven  and  a  quarter — that 


44  Ireland  among  the  Nations, 

is,  sixty  miles  in  circuit — was  encompassed  by 
walls  one  hundred  feet  high,  broad  enough  on 
top  for  three  chariots  to  drive  abreast ;  and  was 
defended  by  fifteen  hundred  towers,  each  two 
hundred  feet  high.  Babylon  was  built  on  both 
banks  of  the  Euphrates  in  the  form  of  an  im- 
mense square.  Its  circuit,  defended  by  immense 
walls  and  towers,  was  fifty-six  miles  ;  so  that,  cov- 
ering an  area  of  about  two  hundred  square  miles, 
and  being  densely  peopled,  it  would  be  about 
seven  times  the  size  of  the  city  of  London.  The 
great  palace  of  Nabuchodonosor  was  surrounded 
by  a  triple  enceinte  of  walls,  the  outermost  being 
seven  miles  round,  the  middle  four  and  a  half, 
and  the  innermost  two  and  a  half.  These  walls 
were  three  hundred  feet  high,  and  guarded  by 
towers  four  hundred  and  twenty  feet  in  height. 
This  palace  was  connected  with  another  less  am- 
ple, situate  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Euphrates, 
by  a  stone  bridge  three  thousand  feet  long,  and  by 
a  tunnel.  The  hanging  gardens,  which  were  ele- 
vated to  a  great  height,  and  were  planted  with  all 
kinds  of  trees  and  plants,  were  squares  sixteen 
hundred  feet  in  circuit.  The  Euphrates  was  lined 
with  brazen  gates  to  close  the  streets,  which  were 
laid  out  in  straight  lines,  and  cut  each  other  at 
right  angles.  There  were,  besides,  temples,  tow- 
ers, statues,  engravings,  paintings,  and  innumera- 


Ancient  Asia.  45 

ble  other  works  with  the  same  amazing  propor- 
tions. No  wonder  that  the  king  of  this  city,  who 
was  able  to  set  up  a  statue  of  gold  one  hundred 
and  five  feet  high  by  ten  and  a  half  wide,  should 
exclaim,  "  Is  not  this  the  great  Babylon,  which  I 
have  built  to  be  the  seat  of  the  kingdom,  by  the 
strength  of  my  power  and  in  the  glory  of  my  ex- 
cellence!" The  history  of  the  fall  of  this  mighty 
city  of  antiquity  is  interesting,  and  is  well  given 
by  Rawlinson  from  Herodotus.  When  Cyrus 
(B.C.  538)  had  made  all  necessary  preparations 
for  turning  the  waters  of  the  Euphrates,  so  that 
his  soldiers  might  enter  the  city  by  its  bed,  "he 
determined  to  wait  for  the  arrival  of  a  certain  fes- 
tival, during  which  the  whole  population  were 
wont  to  engage  in  drinking  and  revelling,  and 
then  silently,  in  the  dead  of  night,  to  turn  the 
water  of  the  river,  and  make  his  attack.  All  fell 
out  as  he  hoped  and  wished.  The  festival  was 
held  with  even  greater  pomp  and  splendor  than 
usual  ;  for  Baltazar,  with  the  natural  insolence 
of  youth,  to  mark  his  contempt  for  the  besieging 
army,  abandoned  himself  wholly  to  the  delights 
of  the  season,  and  himself  entertained  a  thousand 
lords  at  his  palace.  Elsewhere,  the  rest  of  the 
population  was  occupied  in  feasting  and  dancing. 
Drunken  riot  and  mad  excitement  held  possession 
of  the  town  ;  the  siege  was  forgotten  ;  ordinary 


46  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

precautions  were  neglected.  Following  the  ex- 
ample of  their  king,  the  Babylonians  gave  them- 
selves up  to  orgies  in  which  religious  frenzy  and 
drunken  excitement  formed  a  strange  and  revolt- 
ing spectacle. 

"  Meanwhile,  outside  the  city,  in  silence  and 
darkness,  the  Persians  watched  at  the  two  points 
where  the  Euphrates  entered  and  left  the  walls. 
Anxiously  they  noted  the  gradual  sinking  of  the 
water  in  the  river-bed  ;  still  more  anxiously  they 
watched  to  see  if  those  within  the  walls  would 
observe  the  suspicious  circumstances,  and  sound 
an  alarm  through  the  town.  Should  such  an 
alarm  be  given,  all  their  labors  would  be  lost. 
But  as  they  watched,  no  sounds  of  alarm  reached 
them  ;  only  a  confused  noise  of  revel  and  riot, 
which  showed  that  the  unhappy  townsmen  were 
quite  unconscious  of  the  approach  of  danger. 

"  At  last  shadowy  forms  began  to  emerge  from 
the  obscurity  of  the  deep  river-bed,  and  on  the 
landing-places,  opposite  the  river  gates,  scattered 
clusters  of  men  grew  into  solid  columns.  The 
undefended  gateways  were  seized,  a  war-shout 
was  raised,  the  alarm  was  taken  and  spread,  and 
swift  runners  were  started  off  to  '  show  the  King 
of  Babylon  that  his  city  was  taken  at  one  end.' 
In  the  darkness  and  confusion  of  the  night,  a  ter- 
rible  massacre    ensued.     The    drunken   revellers 


Ancient  Asia.  47 

could  make  no  resistance.  The  king,  paralyzed 
with  fear  at  the  awful  handwriting  on  the  wall, 
which  too  late  had  warned  him  of  his  peril,  could 
do  nothing  even  to  check  the  progress  of  the 
assailants,  who  carried  all  before  them  everywhere. 
Bursting  into  the  palace,  a  band  of  Persians  made 
their  way  to  the  presence  of  the  monarch,  and 
slew  him  on  the  scene  of  his  impious  revelry. 
Other  bands  carried  fire  and  the  sword  through 
the  town.  When  morning  came,  Cyrus  found 
himself  undisputed  master  of  the  city." 

The  rise  of  the  Persians  to  power  was  a  benefit 
to  the  human  race.  They  were,  at  first,  a  simple, 
hardy,  and  brave  people  ;  intelligent,  chaste,  and 
truthful ;  patriarchal  in  manners  and  religion,  and 
far  in  advance  of  other  Asiatic  races.  This  first 
stage  of  the  Persian  race,  known  as  the  Aryan,  was 
afterwards  modified  by  the  conquest  of  the  Medes, 
from  whom  they  received  the  whole  ceremonial 
of  Magianism,  together  with  its  fire-worship  and 
divinities.  The  overthrow  of  the  Babylonians 
reduced  the  Persians  to  almost  the  level  of  the 
lowest  Asiatics.  They  became  effeminate,  cow- 
ardly, and  cruel,  sensual  and  mean,  lazy,  glut- 
tonous, and  idolatrous.  They  were,  however, 
instrumental  in  transferring  power  from  a  baser 
race  than  themselves  to  higher,  nobler,  and  more 
civilized  people.     There  is  a  great  resemblance 


48  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

between  the  Celts  of  Scotia  and  the  older  Per- 
sians. The  Aryan  tribal  relations,  the  simplicity 
of  their  religion,  the  dresses  and  ornaments,  the 
doctrines,  usages,  and  tenets  of  the  Magi,  the 
military  practices,  and  many  habits  of  private 
and  public  life,  decidedly  establish  some  link 
of  connection  between   Scotia  and   Persia. 

Of  all  these,  the  Ninivites,  Babylonians,  and 
Persians,  very  little  is  left  to-day.  Where  the 
wealth  and  glories  of  Assyria  and  Persia  were 
the  wonder  of  nations,  there  nothing  is  left  but 
miles  of  mounds  by  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  ; 
and  together  with  the  enormous  walls,  and  brazen 
gates,  and  hanging  gardens,  and  gorgeous  palaces, 
and  gigantic  temples  of  ancient  capitals,  have  been 
buried  the  genius,  power,  civilization,  and  influ- 
ence of  the  Assyrian  and  Persian  races  on  the 
human  family.  They  have  shown  how  despotism 
can  degrade  mankind,  and  as  a  lump  of  lead  sinks 
into  the  ocean  they  have  disappeared  from  among 
men,  and,  in  the  words  of  the  Prophet  Sophonias, 
have  left  their  beautiful  cities  "  a  wilderness,  and 
as  a  place  not  passable,  and  as  a  desert.  The 
flocks  have  lain  down  in  the  midst  thereof,  the 
beasts  of  all  nations  ;  the  bittern  and  the  urchin 
have  lodged  in  the  threshold  thereof;  the  voice 
of  the  singing-bird  in  the  window,  the  raven  in 
the  upper  post," 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  GREEKS. 

T  is  refreshing  to  turn  from  the  effete 
nations  of  Asia  to  the  land  of  Japheth, 
where  we  find  fresh  muscle  and  fresh 
brain,  new  energy  and  new  impetus. 
The  Asiatics  were  indolent,  sensual,  and  slavish  ; 
the  Greeks  were  active,  intelligent,  and  independ- 
ent. The  soft  climate  of  Asia,  the  enormous 
multitudes  of  its  inhabitants,  and  the  vast  wealth 
of  its  countries,  together  with  its  despotic  forms 
of  government,  begot  a  host  of  unthinking,  unen- 
lightened, and  unresisting  races  ;  but  the  barren 
crags,  and  lovely  vales,  and  sea-beaten  or  sea- 
kissed  islands  of  Greece,  overspread  with  a  net- 
work of  mountain  ranges,  produced  a  thinking, 
self-reliant,  and  liberty-loving  people.  We  find 
nothing  of  the  hugeness  so  peculiarly  Asiatic, 
but  the  vast  range  of  intellectual  concep- 
tion, and  the  unbounded  development  of  the 
grandeur  of  intelligence,  and  the  enrapturing 
flights  of  chaste  imaginativeness,  and  the  un- 
paralleled  elevation  of  the   spiritual  powers  in 


50  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

man    transcend  the  wildest  dreams  of  the  gor- 
geous   Orient. 

It   is  scarcely  possible  to  overestimate  the  in- 
fluence of  Greece  upon  the  human  race.    Outside 
of  the  high  republican  form  of  government  which 
the   Mosaic  revelation  had  given  to  the   Jewish 
race,  and  which  had  been  basely  repudiated  by 
an   ungrateful  nation,  we   look  in  vain   for  any- 
thing like  the  powers   of  the   Grecian   mind    to 
effect  human  organization.     The  individual  was 
lost  in  Asiatic  discipline  ;  but  the  Grecian  system 
made  each  man  a  tower  of  strength  in  the  city, 
the   state,   and  the  army,   by  substituting  inde- 
pendent and  intelligent  individual  action  for  the 
unrecognized    and    undisplayed    powers   of   the 
Oriental.     Manhood,  freedom,   and  energy  were 
the   basis   of   Grecian    life.     Imbued   with    such 
notions,  the  Greek  in  his  enterprise  never  halted, 
whether   his  thoughts  were   directed   to   war  or 
peace,   to   philosophy  or   poetry,   to    science    or 
knowledge,  to  life    or  death.     And  in   all  these 
departments  of  study,  mankind  has  received  more 
from  Attica  and  Lacedsemon,  Athens  and  Sparta, 
than  any  other  two  states  and  two  cities  on  the  sur- 
face of  the  globe.    Athens  still  moulds  the  brains 
of  the  human  race,  and  Sparta  still  rouses  the 
human  spirit  and  fires  the  human  heart.    The  de- 
mocracy of  Athens  and  the  oligarchy  of  Sparta 


The  Greeks.  51 

have  each  in  its  own  way  been  productive  of  good. 
To  the  democracy  of  Athens  we  are  indebted  for 
vast  treasures  of  knowledge  ;  and  to  the  oligarchy 
of  Sparta  valor,  patriotism,  and  religion  owe  a 
lasting  debt.  These  states,  holding  the  hegemony 
of  Greece,  communicated  their  influence  far  and 
wide  among  the  Grecian  peoples. 

What  has  mankind  received  from  Greece  ? 
Socrates  and  Plato  founded  schools  of  philoso- 
phy in  the  pagan  world,  whose  methods  were 
communicated  to  the  Christian  church,  and  have 
been  felt  to  our  own  times.  In  poetry,  Homer  is, 
and  probably  will  be  to  the  end  of  time,  the 
prince  of  epic  poetry.  Sophocles,  ^Eschylus, 
and  Euripides  are  without  rivals  in  tragedy. 
Euclid's  book  has  been  an  unsurpassed  work  in 
the  schools  of  the  world  for  over  two  thousand 
years.  In  the  senates  of  the  world  to-day,  Cicero's 
orations  would  be  considered  fustian  ;  but  the 
speeches  of  Demosthenes  would  be  regarded  as 
eloquent  and  practical,  and  hearkened  to  with 
approval  and  success.  Socrates  and  Longinus,  as 
critics,  outshine  Cicero,  Horace,  and  Quintilian. 
The  world  is  undecided  as  to  whether  the  palm 
belongs  to  Horace  or  Pindar  in  lyric  poetry. 
Livy  and  Caesar  stand  alone  in  bearing  off  the 
prize  from  Herodotus  and  Xenophon  ;  though,  in 
the  poetic  radiance  of  Herodotus,  there  is  a  com- 


52  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

pensation  for  the  measured  magnificence  of  Livy  ; 
and,  in  the  artless  simplicity  of  Xenophon,  there 
is  an  equivalent  for  the  careless  accuracy  and 
masterly  imagery  of  Caesar. 

The  triumphs  of  Grecian  valor  and  the  suc- 
cesses of  Roman  bravery  had  a  different  scope. 
The  bravery  of  the  Fabii  was  no  less  than  that 
of  Leonidas  and  his  three  hundred  .Spartans  ; 
but  the  innumerable  multitudes  opposed  to  the 
Spartan  leader  have  immeasurably  heightened  the 
glory  of  Leonidas.  The  naval  struggles  of  Rome 
with  Carthage  belittle  the  evacuation  of  Athens 
and  the  maritime  discomfiture  of  the  Persians  ; 
but  the  genius  of  Greece  has  dazzled  the  judg- 
ment of  nations,  and  shed  more  glory  on  the  arms 
of  Greece  than  the  valor  of  her  warriors.  We 
find  evidence  in  Machabees  of  the  high  esteem 
in  which  the  natural  virtues  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans  were  held  by  the  Hebrews. 

Greece  owed  much  to  its  Amphictyonic  assem- 
blies. These  meetings,  which  are  said  to  date 
back  as  early  as  fifteen  centuries  before  Christ, 
were  representative  in  character,  and  were  held 
near  the  most  celebrated  temples.  There  was 
one  at  Argos,  near  the  temple  of  Juno  ;  another 
at  Corinth,  near  the  temple  of  Neptune  ;  a  third 
at  Eolia,  near  the  temple  of  Apollo  ;  a  fourth 
at  Thermopylae,  near  the  temple  of  Ceres ;    but 


The  Greeks,  53 

the  most  powerful  and  celebrated  of  all  was  the 
Amphictyonic  Council  of  Delphi.  It  represented 
twelve  peoples  of  Greece  ;  and,  though  any  of 
these  might  send  as  many  delegates  as  it  chose, 
each  people  had  but  two  votes.  This  Amphic- 
tyonic assembly,  which  met  twice  a  year — in 
spring  at  Delphi,  and  in  autumn  at  Thermopylae 
— constituted  a  national  government  for  the 
twelve  confederated  states.  Its  duties  were  to 
watch  over  the  general  welfare,  to  settle  disputes 
between  state  and  state,  to  prevent  or  carry  on 
wars,  and  to  uphold  the  national  interests  of 
Greece   at  home  and  abroad. 

The  Greeks  enjoyed  the  right  of  franchise  in 
their  own  states  as  well  as  at  the  national  meet- 
ings. The  Areopagus,  or  upper  house,  and  the 
Agora,  or  people's  meeting,  were  based  on  the 
votes  of  the  people.  A.  more  aristocratic  form 
of  government  obtained  at  Lacedaemon.  In  the 
army,  only  the  leaders  were  admitted  to  the 
council  called  Boule  ;  but  the  common  soldiers 
took  part  in  the  assembly  called  Ecclesia,  or 
Agora.  Unfortunately,  however,  liberty,  election, 
and  franchise  with  the  Greeks  were  for  Greeks ; 
and  in  the  Grecian  states  the  vast  body  of  the 
people  were  disqualified  by  law.  Neither  the 
Jews  in  Egypt  nor  the  captives  of  the  Babylo- 
nian   and    Persian  empires   underwent   servitude 


54  Ireland  among  the  Nations, 

more  oppressive  and  brutalizing  than  that  of 
the  slaves  in  Attica  and  the  helots  in  Lacedae- 
mon.  By  the  cryptic  law  (cryptia),  the  Spartan 
youth  were  allowed  to  steal  upon  slaves,  and,  by 
murdering  them,  render  themselves  more  expert 
in  case  of  war.  Alas  !  that  among  the  scholars  of 
Greece  there  could  be  found  minds  to  tolerate 
and  justify  such  barbarity,  savagery,  and  inhu- 
manity. 

The  entrance  of  the  Macedonians  into  the 
Amphictyonic  League  was  the  forerunner  of  the 
downfall  of  Greece.  The  states,  to  preserve  their 
union,  needed  a  stronger  central  authority  than 
that  at  Delphi ;  and  Greece  proper  being  over- 
flooded  with  hordes  of  slaves,  whose  rights  she 
ignored,  and  who,  in  turn,  cared  little  for  her 
welfare,  was  ill  prepared  to  cope  with  the  brave, 
bold,  and  free  warriors  of  Macedonia.  Accord- 
ingly, when  the  crisis  came,  Greece  saw  the  light 
of  liberty  extinguished  by  the  Macedonian  con- 
queror, Philip ;  because,  being  unjust  to  others, 
and  loving  liberty  only  for  herself,  she  was  torn 
asunder  by  disunion,  and  paralyzed  by  the  use- 
less, weighty,  and  unmanageable  luggage  of 
slavery. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE   ROMANS. 

O  one  cenies  the  importance  of  the  high 
and  momentous  questions  connected 
with  the  Roman  name.  It  is  an  un- 
questionable fact  that,  in  the  history 
of  the  human  race,  the  Romans  occupy  the  most 
prominent  position.  To  the  eyes  of  the  historian, 
the  Roman  world  is  amongst  the  nations  of  by- 
gone centuries  what,  to  the  eyes  of  the  astrono- 
mer, the  sun  is  amongst  the  heavenly  bodies. 
The  generative  causes  of  that  outshining  social 
edifice  have  occupied  the  most  splendid  intellects 
of  past  ages,  and  have  been  examined  by  the  best 
minds  of  our  own  day.  To  some  it  seems  that 
the  nations  of  the  earth  were  welded  into  one 
body  by  the  superior  military  mechanism  of  the 
Romans,  and  that  the  impaired  efficiency  of  this 
military  machinery,  together  with  a  certain  mys- 
terious fatality,  produced  the  disintegration  of 
the  Roman  Empire  by  destroying  the  cohesive 
qualities  of  Roman  rule.  We  know,  indeed,  that 
vast  empires  have  been  born  of  the  sword  ;  but 
we  have  yet  to  learn   that    an  empire    embrac- 


56  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

ing  the  nations,  religions,  and  languages  of  the 
earth  could  have  been  founded  on  and  con- 
served for  centuries  by  military  mechanism. 
The  Romans,  like  Attila,  or  Genghis  Khan,  or 
Alexander,  or  Sesostris,  might  have  gone  forth, 
and,  either  by  bravery,  or  superior  tactics,  or  vast 
levied  armies,  have  overrun  the  nations  of  the 
earth  ;  but  military  mechanism  could  never  have 
raised  and  sustained  through  a  long  lapse  of 
ages  a  mighty  republic  built  on  vanquished  peo- 
ples. And  yet  Rome  not  only  conquered  and 
incorporated  vanquished  races,  but  bound  them 
to  the  centre,  Rome  ;  so  much  so  that  they  lost 
nationality,  language,  and  institutions  to  become 
Romans.  Rome  not  only  Romanized  Italy,  but 
Italianized  the  then  known  world.  In  the  days 
of  Hadrian  and  Trajan,  the  waves  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean knew  no  lord  but  the  Roman  ;  from  the 
margin  of  that  sea  were  wafted  the  wealth  and 
produce  of  the  world  towards  Rome  ;  and,  far 
beyond  that  margin,  the  genius  and  power  of 
Rome  were  transforming  nations,  building  roads 
and  palaces,  founding  cities,  subdividing  pro- 
vinces, spreading  the  Latin  language,  and  stamp- 
ing the  mind  of  Latium  on  the  human  race.  From 
the  Padus  to  Iapygium,  the  names  of  the  Italian 
tribes  were  merged  into  the  name  of  Rome.  The 
men  of  Mesraim  bowed  before  the  Roman  eagle, 


The  Romans,  57 

and  saw  the  traditions  of  two  thousand  years  van- 
ish away  before  the  institutions  of  Rome.    Asiatic 
cities  renounced  their  pride  of  birth,  and  Greece 
yielded   up  a  rich  heritage  of  literary  and  mili- 
tary glory.    The  fiery  valor  of  the  Gauls,  and  the 
martial  memories  of  Western  nations,  were  sur- 
mounted  by    the   unconquerable    energy  of  the 
Roman  mind.     To  Rome  the  known  nations  of 
the  earth  became  as  handmaids,  and  paid  hom- 
age through  a  dozen  generations.     Whatever  had 
been  great  in  the  world,  whatever  beautiful,  what- 
ever  renowned,  whatever   ennobling,   was   swal- 
lowed up  in  the   mighty  name  of  Rome.     And 
when,  amid  the  upheaving  of  humanity  and  the 
undulations  of  races,  Rome  sank  as  a  ship  in  a 
troubled  ocean,  her  spirit  lived  to  elevate  the  Ital- 
ian, the  Spaniard,  the  Frank,  the  Norman,  to  be  the 
princes  of  the  families  of  mankind.     Could  mili- 
tary mechanism  have  accomplished  such  results  ? 
Could  military  mechanism,  when  it  was  no  more, 
possess  a  renovating  influence  ?    Does  not  Sallust 
assert  the  superiority  of  the  Gauls  to  the  Romans 
in  war  ?     Besides,   it    is    debatable   whether   the 
military  systems  of  the  Greeks  are  not   prefer- 
able to  the  war  tactics  of   the    Romans.      The 
Thessalian  cavalry  and  the  Macedonian  phalanx, 
with  its  adaptability  to   evolutions,  can  stand   a 
strict  critical  comparison  with  the  Roman  equites 


58  Ireland  among  the  Nations\ 

and  the  Roman  legion.  The  variety  of  move- 
ments in  the  phalanx,  despite  its  inflexible  and 
inseparable  character,  may  well  compensate  for 
the  individual  and  displayed  energy  of  the 
Roman  combination.  That  Polybius  judges  the 
mechanism  of  the  Roman  superior  to  that  of  the 
Greek  may  be  ascribable  to  the  fact  that  he  pre- 
ferred attributing  the  subjugation  of  his  country- 
men, not  to  a  superiority  of  valor,  but  of  military 
manoeuvres.  Does  any  one  suppose  that  the 
army  of  Pompey,  twice  as  numerous  as  that  of 
Caesar,  was  worsted  through  the  defect  of  theo- 
retic military  mechanism,  rather  than  through  the 
deficiency  of  the  qualities  which  make  a  soldier  ? 
If- any  one  will  take  the  trouble  of  writing,  in 
parallel  columns,  the  organization,  sub-organiza- 
tions, the  war  habiliments,  the  aggressive  and 
defensive  weapons,  the  laws  of  army  management 
in  sieges,  in  march,  in  battle,  and  in  the  tent,  as 
they  existed  in  Greece  and  Rome,  we  would 
leave  to  his  candid  judgment  the  decision  on  the 
speculative  excellence  of  Grecian  and  Roman  war 
systems  considered  as  a  whole. 

And  on  the  sea,  the  Romans  were  tyros  when 
the  Greeks  had  attained  considerable  perfection. 
The  Romans  defeated  the  Carthaginians,  not 
on  a  system  indigenous  to  the  waters  of  La- 
tium,  but  with   a   fleet  formed  after  the  fashion 


The  Romans.  59 

of  an  inimical  craft  wrecked  on  the  Italian  shore. 
In  the  progressive  days  of  Rome,  the  nomen- 
clature of  the  parts  and  naval  acts  of  a  Roman 
vessel  was  suggested  by  or  adopted  from  the  pre- 
existing terminology  of  Greece.  What  thence  ? 
Do  we  depreciate  the  military  mechanism '  of 
Rome  ?  By  no  means.  But  we  unhesitatingly 
object  to  placing  it  as  the  primary  cause  of  the 
elevation  of  Rome  to  the  pinnacle  of  power. 
Where  others  place  military  mechanism,  we 
would  substitute  Roman  character  and  Roman 
institutions.  In  no  place  did  character  and  insti- 
tutions more  powerfully  concur  to  elevate  the 
individual  than  in  the  city  of  old  Rome,  on  the 
banks  of  the  Tiber,  in  the  state  of  Latium.  The 
kings  imparted  a  multifold  and  vigorous  develop- 
ment to  the  martial,  the  religious,  the  sesthetical, 
the  governmental,  and  the  utilitarian  tendencies 
of  the  people.  These  fountains  of  grandeur 
poured  their  united  streams  of  glory  through 
the  five  centuries  of  the  Republic  into  a  mag- 
nificent reservoir,  to  empty  which  there  was 
demanded  the  lapse  of  five  hundred  years  of 
enfeebling  despotism.  It  would  be  long  to  trace 
the  single  developments.  But  we  can  see,  and 
might  explain  by  facts,  that,  in  as  far  as  Rome 
incorporated*  with  equalization  other  powers,  so 
far  did   she  strengthen   and  aggrandize   herself; 


60  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

whereas  incorporations  subjected  to  unequality 
were  co-causes  of  her  destruction.  In  the  Books 
of  the  Machabees,  we  see  that  the  Jews,  in  their 
emergency,  called  in  the  Romans  as  the  justest 
amongst  the  Gentiles.  In  his  preface,  Livy  says : 
"  But  either  am  I  deceived  by  the  love  of  my 
ccitemplated  work,  or  there  never  has  been  a 
republic  so  great,  so  holy,  so  rich  in  good  ex- 
amples ;  nor  one  into  which  avarice  and  luxury 
were  introduced  at  so  late  a  date  ;  nor  one  in 
which  poverty  and  parsimony  were  in  such 
lasting  honor ;  so  much  so  that  the  less  the 
riches,  the  less  the  cupidity.  Lately  wealth 
imported  avarice,  and  overflowing  opulence  be- 
got a  desire  to  ruin  and  destroy  everything 
through  extravagance  and  luxury."  It  is  always 
safer  to  accuse  those  that  are  dead  than  those 
with  whom  we  live  ;  and  surely  the  historian  that 
did  not  dread  to  attack  the  living  would  not  have 
failed  to  arraign  the  dead  had  the  dead  deserved 
it.  The  cause  of  the  expulsion  of  Tarquin,  and  his 
banishment,  consecrated  an  individual  self-respect 
which  evermore  remained  an  important  element 
in  the  Roman  character.  This  self-respect  is  the 
bulwark  of  individual  freedom,  and  the  most  inde- 
structible foundation  of  a  social  edifice.  From  it 
arose  the  right  to  suffrage,  the  right  to  commerce, 
the  right  to  marriage,  the  right  to  honors.     It  was 


The  Romans.  61 

the  mine  which  blew  up,  first  the  patricians,  and 
then  the  nobles.  This  self-respect  imparted  for- 
titude to  the  soldier,  wisdom  to  the  statesman, 
honor  to  the  merchant.  The  individual  was 
clothed  with  the  majesty  of  his  country.  To 
uphold  that  majesty  was  the  first  duty  of  the 
Roman.  Allied  with  self-respect,  unchangeable- 
ness  of  purpose  appears  as  a  trait  of  the  Roman 
character.  Athens  might  have  been  a  Rome  had 
the  Athenian  spirit  the  persistency  of  the  Roman. 
But  there  was,  perhaps,  no  formative  element  of 
the  Roman  character  so  prominent  as  the  practi- 
cal common  sense  which  made  them  learners  in 
all  the  departments  of  life.  The  Romans  admit- 
ted the  perfectibility  of  their  institutions  and 
practices,  so  as  to  adopt  from  foreigners  whatever 
they  deemed  an  improvement.  The  Spartan  loved 
his  country  as  intensely  and  as  devotedly  as  the 
Roman  ;  but  Sparta,  rejecting  the  eclecticism  of 
Rome,  remained  cramped  and  undeveloped  in 
its  exclusiveness.  These  qualities  of  mind,  to- 
gether with  a  physical  strength  such  as  appears 
from  the  saying  of  Pyrrhus,  "  Had  I  the  Romans 
for  soldiers,  I  could  conquer  the  world,"  led 
Rome  along  the  highway  of  glory  and  power. 

But  the  Roman  character  was  stained  with 
dark  and  deplorable  vices.  The  incalculable 
wealth  and  the  boundless  power  of  Rome  gave 


62  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

birth  to  a  sensuality  unsurpassed  even  in  ancient 
Asiatic  cities.  The  proud  lords  of  the  world 
looked  down  with  disdain  on  conquered  provinces 
and  fallen  nationalities;  and,  in  the  flow  of  time, 
the  stern  virtues  of  the  Roman  Republic  were 
superseded  by  the  hollow  rottenness  and  empty 
glitter  of  the  Roman  Empire.  The  sewers  of  the 
world,  with  all  their  filth,  were  emptied  into  Rome 
as  a  common  receptacle.  Polytheism,  with  all  its 
debasing  influences  of  lust,  ignorance,  arrogance, 
and  untold  abominations,  set  up  its  throne  in 
Rome.  Slavery,  with  its  train  of  woes,  inhuman- 
ity, injustice,  hardheartedness,  outrage,  oppres- 
sion, insecurity,  and  crime,  gnawed  like  a  cancer 
at  the  vitals  of  Roman  society. 

What  a  mournful  spectacle  !  Despotic  power 
enthroned  with  dazzling  gorgeousness  amid  the- 
atres, amphitheatres,  palaces,  baths,  and  monu- 
ments, inheriting  the  magnificence  and  glory  of  all 
previous  time,  honored  from  the  rising  to  the  set- 
ting sun,  and  holding  in  its  grasp  the  wealth  and 
dominion  of  the  world  ;  but  underneath,  and  away 
to  the  far-distant  provinces  by  the  Euphrates,  the 
Tagus,  the  Danube,  and  the  Nile,  we  see  nothing 
but  extortion,  degradation,  misery,  human  suffer- 
ing, and  slavery  !  Could  such  a  state  of  society, 
destitute  of  innate  vitality,  possess  a  lasting 
power  ?     Accordingly,  we  find  that  the  elements 


The  Romans.  63 

of  Roman  life,  which  were  founded  on  Roman 
virtues,  outlived  the  overthrow  of  Rome,  while 
its  rottenness,  and  grandeur,  and  glitter  passed 
away.  From  Rome  we  have  inherited  its  culture, 
its  power  of  organization,  its  self-respect,  its 
unchangeableness  of  purpose,  its  common-sense 
eclecticism,  its  institutions,  and  its  language  in 
different  dialects,  as  a  common  legacy  of  the 
human  family ;  but  the  barbarians,  who  had 
been  brought  up  in  hardy  and  valorous  simpli- 
city of  life,  rolled  over  the  Roman  Empire,  and, 
like  a  deluge,  swept  away  all  the  perishable  ele- 
ments in  that  astounding  fabric.  With  a  mourn- 
ful and  melancholy  fatality  Rome  went  down, 
and  left  in  its  fall  a  memorial  vindication  of  truth, 
justice,  and  humanity  in  the  providence  of  God. 
Herein  is  a  lesson  for  Ireland,  who  saw  her 
days  of  pride  as  well  as  her  days  of  shame,  to 
hate  injustice,  inhumanity,  human  degradation  ; 
and,  while  she  keeps  her  feet  unfettered  with  the 
chains  of  vice,  sin,  and  slavery,  to  press  forward 
in  a  noble  rivalry  of  virtue,  justice,  and  truth. 
When  we  hear  the  irons  of  despotism  clanking 
on  the  limbs  of  nations  in  the  distance,  we  know 
not  how  soon  they  may  sound  at  our  own  door  ; 
for  the  ways  of  tyrants  are  unknown,  and  despot- 
ism, like  a  dark  cloud  in  the  distance,  may  come 
and  break  over  us  at  any  moment. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  TEUTONS  AND  THE  ANGLO-SAXONS. 

N  the  vast  country  which  extends  from 
the  Danube  to  the  German  Ocean, 
and  which  spreads  away  indefinitely 
from  the  Rhine  towards  the  Carpa- 
thian Mountains,  the  Oder,  and  the  Dnieper, 
there  always  lived  a  brave  and  noble  people. 
They  never  bowed  to  the  Roman  yoke ;  but, 
after  surging  towards  its  confines  for  centuries, 
at  length  burst  the  barriers,  and  carried  deso- 
lation and  destruction  irresistibly  on  their 
course.  From  Germany  came  the  Franks,  who 
revived  the  Western  empire  under  Charle- 
magne, and  thence  came  the  Anglo-Saxons, 
who  built  up  the  heptarchy  in  England.  The 
valor  and  manhood  of  the  German  Arminius  are 
known  the  world  over ;  and  there  is  nothing  in 
the  annals  of  the  world  to  surpass  the  heroic 
resistance  of  the  Saxons  to  Charlemagne.  Occu- 
pying the  grand  central  commanding  position  in 
Europe,  they  have  always  held  close  relations 
with  Italy,  France,  Constantinople,  and  the 
North.     Their    connections   with    Italy  were  al- 


The  Teutons  and  the  Anglo-Saxons.    65 

ways' of  a  disagreeable  nature,  and  involved  both 
nations  in  wars,  feuds,  and  endless  controversies 
on  the  relative  claims  of  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
authorities.  From  France  they  gained  much  and 
suffered  much.  As  the  Romans  suffered  much 
from  the  Teutons,  so  they  in  turn  were  harassed 
continually  by  nations  further  to  the  north  and 
northeast.  With  Ireland  and  England  their  inter- 
course was  of  a  more  amicable  character  ;  for, 
after  Scotia,  both  England  and  Scotia  undertook 
the  joint  labor  of  introducing  civilization  with 
the  Christian  religion  into  Germany.  Their  labors 
were  crowned  with  the  highest  success ;  and 
even  to  this  day  their  influence  has  not  been 
lost. 

The  Saxon  branch  of  the  Teutonic  race  gave 
birth  to  a  noble  people,  frrends  of  the  Scots  both 
in  Albania  and  Hibernia,  and  rivals,  not  in  the 
dark  deeds  of  war  and  plunder,  but  in  the  bright 
course  of  learning,  sanctity,  and  beneficence.  It 
is  a  great  mistake  to  mix  up  the  history  of  the 
Saxons  with  the  black  crimes  of  the  Normans  ; 
for  the  Saxons  were  a  simple,  just,  and  saintly 
race  ;  lovers  of  learning,  truth,  and  peace  ;  es- 
pecial friends  of  the  inhabitants  of  southern 
Ireland.  To  the  Saxon  and  Scottish  races  Ger- 
many is  indebted  for  the  transformation  of  the 
Fatherland  from  barbarism  to  a  state  of  civiliza- 
tion.    Germany  received  from  them  the  Roman 


66  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

alphabet,  its  knowledge  of  law,  its  religion,  and 
its  culture.  Tacitus  mentions  the  Germans  as 
having  been  always  fond  of  music — a  fact  which 
was  true  at  the  time  of  the  Saxon  and  Scottish 
missionaries.  Germany  has  given  the  organ  to 
the  world,  but  received  the  harp  from  the  Scots. 

Ever  since  the  conversion  of  Germany,  its  influ- 
ence has  been  felt  on  the  human  race.  Little  did 
those  Saxon  and  Irish  saints,  and  scholars,  and 
wanderers  dream,  as  they  passed  the  seas  in  their 
wicker  boats,  and  traversed  interminable  jungles, 
that  the  cities  they  were  founding,  and  the  peo- 
ples they  were  educating,  would  be  the  parents 
of  mighty  empires  and  nations,  and  of  a  new 
civilization  outshining  that  of  Rome,  and  Athens, 
and  Jerusalem. 

Many  years  the  result  of  their  labors  was  de- 
layed by  the  feuds  of  princes,  the  despotism  of 
rulers,  the  intrigues  of  the  ambitious,  and  the 
degrading  influences  of  feudalism.  Many  years 
did  generations  sigh  for  repose,  and  sigh  for  it  in 
vain.  At  length  with  intelligence  came  light, 
and  with  light,  union,  and  with  union,  strength, 
and  with  strength,  freedom.  Many  generations 
have  already  garnered  the  harvest  of  the  seed 
sown  in  Germany  over  a  thousand  years  ago  by 
Saxons,  Caledonians,  and  Hibernians,  who  were 
the  men  of  light,  and  leading  in  their  day.  Shall 
it  be  so  once  more  ?     What  says  Ireland  ? 


CHAPTER   X. 

THE   MOHAMMEDANS  AND   THE   ARABS. 

N  the  vast  peninsula  on  the  south- 
western extremity  of  Asia  lies  the 
home  of  the  Mohammedan  and  the 
Arab.  Since  the  days  when  Abra- 
ham turned  Ismael  and  Agar  into  the  desert, 
down  to  the  time  of  Cyrus  and  Cambyses,  and 
from  Cyrus  and  Cambyses  to  the  ill-fated  expedi- 
tion of  ^Elius  Gallus  under  Augustus,  and  down 
to  the  wild,  nomadic  reign  of  the  Bedouins  in  our 
own  day,  the  red,  sandy  deserts  of  Arabia  have 
been  the  free  domains  of  an  unconquered  race. 
Mohammedanism  alone  seems  to  have  left  its 
footprints  on  Arabia's  undulating  seas  of  sand. 
Mohammedanism,  however,  was  no  foreign  im- 
portation, but  an  indigenous  growth  endowed 
with  cohesive  powers,  by  which  scattered  tribes 
and  lawless  sheiks  were  banded  into  one  nation 
and  one  army,  under  one  religion  and  one  govern- 
ment, and  grew  to  be  a  mighty  power  in  the 
world.  During  the  end  of  the  sixth  century  and 
the  beginning  of  the  seventh,  there  appeared  in 
Arabia  a  man  who  worked,  within  half  a  century, 


68  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

a  revolution  never  witnessed  in  any  nation.    This 
was  Mohammed,  or  Mahomet.     He  stamped  his 
mind  upon  his  nation  ;    he  moulded  his  country- 
men to  a  new  destiny  ;  his  religious  views  became 
ingrained  in  the  national  character;  "his  reign  and 
legislation  were  recognized   by  clans  which  had 
existed  unsubdued  from  the  foundations  of  so- 
ciety;   disunion  was  superseded   by  union,   dis- 
trust by  confidence,  and  discord  by  harmony  ;  his 
death  was  followed   by  a  theocratic   empire,  in 
which  Arab  and  Mohammedan  were  equivalent 
terms.     And   this  new-born  Arab  Mohammedan 
Empire,  established    in   the    centre    of   the    Old 
World's    populations,    burst    its    barriers    on    all 
sides,   and  was   enlarged   to   the   north   and   the 
south,  and  the  east  and  the  west.     The  tide  of 
Mohammedan  conquest  rolled  to  the  west  over 
Egypt,  and  along  the  northern  shores  of  Africa 
to  the  Pillars  of  Hercules.    Thence  it  swept  over 
Spain,  and  from  Spain   across  the  Pyrenees  into 
France,  where  it  was  stayed  by  the  Franks  under 
Charles  Martel,  after  a  century  of  uninterrupted 
conquests    and    triumphs.       To    the    north    the 
armies  of'Islamism  overran  Syria,  subdued  Asia 
Minor,  planted  the  crescent  on  the  Golden  Horn, 
and  were  arrested  in  their  career  of  glory  before 
the  walls  of  Vienna  by  John  Sobieski,  of  Poland. 
Southward    and   eastward    the    followers    of   the 


The  Mohammedans  and  the  Arabs     69 

mighty  Arab  established  his  sway  amongst  the 
multitudinous  populations  that  dwelt  on  either 
side  of  the  two  thousand  miles'  range  of  the  snow- 
crowned  Hindoo  Koosh.  Thus,  Arab  influence 
extended  over  three  continents,  and  the  great 
Arab  religion  contains  to-day  within  its  fold  one 
hundred  and  ten  millions  of  the  human  race. 

The  prodigious  spread  of  Mohammedanism  was 
due,  in  a  great  measure,  to  the  natural  character 
of  the  Arab.  Cunning  by  nature,  quick  in  exe- 
cution, impassioned  in  the  pursuit  of  power, 
nomadic  in  customs,  reckless  with  regard  to  life, 
brilliant  in  intellectual  endowments,  deeply  im- 
pressionable in  his  religious  sensibilities,  estranged 
from  the  ties  of  home,  and  wildly  imaginative  in 
the  pursuit  of  novelty  and  glory,  the  Arab  of  the 
desert  was  splendid  material  for  a  fanatic  soldier. 
There  was  no  danger  he  would  not  brave,  no  sacri- 
fices he  would  not  make,  no  sufferings  he  would 
not  undergo,  no  conquest  he  would  not  undertake, 
and  for  centuries  there  was  no  undertaking  which 
he  did  not  accomplish.  The  Prophet  of  Mecca 
was  intensely  national  in  character,  and  gifted 
with  the  most  brilliant,  effective,  and  captivating 
endowments  of  his  countrymen.  Profoundly  de- 
votional and  remarkably  far-sighted,  he  made  his 
first  appeals  to  the  religious  instincts  of  his  coun- 
trymen, and   presented  them  with  a  religion  to 


yo  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

suit  the  sects  of  Arabia — being  partly  Christian, 
partly  Jewish,  and  partly  pagan.  The  absolute 
unity,  isolation,  and  supremacy  of  God  form  the 
corner-stone  of  the  Moha'mmedan  edifice,  which 
was,  at  first,  simple  and  sublime  in  its  conception, 
but  became  deformed  and  unsightly  afterwards 
by  the  doctrine  of  fatalism,  the  promise  of  sensu- 
ous enjoyments  in  a  future  world,  and  the  dog- 
mas of  dependence,  resignation,  and  indifference. 
Having  gained  the  religious  allegiance  of  the  Arab 
zealot,  Mohammed  appealed  to  the  doctrine  of 
propagandism  by  the  sword.  To  fiery  fanatics, 
bred  in  the  perils  of  the  desert  and  barren  moun- 
tains of  Arabia,  inured  to  hardship,  and  believ- 
ing in  a  remorseless  God  with  whom  there  was 
nothing  acceptable  but  salvation  or  destruction, 
there  was  a  magic  spell  and  an  irresistible  charm 
in  the  tenets  and  practices  of  Mohammedanism. 
They  witnessed  victory  after  victory  set  upon 
their  banner;  they  beheld  their  armies  swell, 
their  wealth  and  domination  increase  ;  and  they 
were  borne  by  an  uncontrollable  impulse  to  sub- 
jugate the  world  to  Allah  and  his  prophet,  Moham- 
med. The  morality  of  Mussulman  polygamy  was 
highly  suitable  to  Asiatic  indolence,  and  the  rigid 
discipline  of  Mohammedan  ceremonies  and  pen- 
ances was  an  admirable  means  of  awakening  Orien- 
tal enthusiasm,  and   inflaming  Oriental  passions 


The  Mohammedans  and  the  Arabs,    y  i 

previous  to  battles  and  wars.  Surrounded  by 
effete  nations,  beset  with  intestine  divisions,  ha- 
rassed by  jealous  neighbors,  devoid  of  vitality  and 
resisting  power,  Mohammedanism  pressed  along 
the  paths  of  victory  with  the  triple  force  of  reli- 
gious fury,  greed  of  political  domination,  and  the 
consciousness  of  superior  merit  from  dazzling  suc- 
cesses. With  the  sword  in  one  hand  and  the 
Koran  in  the  other,  the  Mussulman  went  forth 
conquering  and  to  conquer. 

But  the  fatal  seeds  of  decomposition  and  stag- 
nation were  engrafted  on  Islamism.  The  utter 
degradation  of  the  female  sex  ;  the  abject  slavery 
to  which  conquered  races  were  reduced  ;  the  unre- 
stricted submission  of  every  Mussulman  to  theo- 
cratic power ;  the  haughtiness,  ignorance,  effemi- 
nacy, and  indolence  of  rulers ;  the  migration  to 
more  genial  climes  and  more  fertile  countries ; 
and  the  relaxing  influences  of  lust  and  luxury, 
were  so  many  inborn  organic  diseases  in  the 
Mohammedan  constitution,  and  with  the  roll  of 
ages  have  changed  the  valorous,  sun-burnt  chil- 
dren of  Mohammed  into  the  lazy  loons  of  the 
Turkish  Empire.  Since  the  power  of  Islamism 
was  frittered  into  foam  at  Poitiers,  Vienna,  and 
Lepanto,  the  waves  of  Mussulmanic  empire  are 
receding  to  their  centre  in  the  sandy  plateaus  of 
Arabia,  whence  they  spread.     The  day  is  not  far 


72  Ireland  among  the  Nations, 

distant  when  the  church  of  St.  Sophia,  at  Con- 
stantinople, may  be  crowned  by  the  Greek  cross 
instead  of  the  Ottoman  crescent. 

Notwithstanding  its  many  black  spots,  the  reli- 
gious followers  of  Mohammedanism  have  done 
much  good  for  the  human  family.  The  grosser 
forms  of  heathen  worship  were  eliminated  over  a 
large  tract  of  the  earth's  surface  by  its  agency. 
It  developed  the  Arabic  language  to  an  incredible 
perfection,  opened  schools  and  universities  in  con- 
quered countries,  has  given  birth  to  a  magnificent 
indigenous  poetry,  and  in  many  respects  opened 
the  gates  of  light  to  the  civilization  which  we  now 
enjoy.  Medicine,  mathematics,  astronomy,  laws, 
chemistry,  botany,  geography,  architecture,  and 
civilization  must  trace  many  of  their  rudimentary 
elements  to  the  twenty  "  holy  empires  "  which  the 
followers  of  the  great  Prophet  of  Mecca  founded. 

Mohammedanism  possessed  many  of  the  traits 
of  Judaism,  and  in  many  respects  the  Moham- 
medans may  be  set  down  as  step-brothers  of  the 
Jews.  Is  there  not  a  striking  analogy  between 
the  subjugation  of  the  Promised  Land  by  Josue 
and  the  conquests  of  Mohammedan  commanders  ? 
Do  not  the  annals  of  Islamism  supply  us  with 
numberless  counterparts  of  Joseph  subjugating 
the  Egyptians  to  Pharao,  of  Judith  deceiving  tiolo- 
fernes,  and  of  Esther  asking  leave  from  Assuerus 


The  Mohammedans  and  the  Arabs.     J 3 

that  the  Jews  might  slaughter  the  Gentiles?  Is 
there  not  among  them  the  same  isolation  and 
absence  of  brotherhood  among  nations  which 
characterized  the  Hebrews  under  the  Mosaic  dis- 
pensation? The  Jews  and  Mohammedans  are 
allied  in  language,  in  legislation,  in  their  views 
of  polygamy  and  concubines,  in  their  hatred  of 
the  heathen,  in  their  haughty  self-importance,  in 
their  manners,  practice's,  and  customs.  I  say, 
then,  that  Mohammedanism  is  nothing  more  than 
an  enlarged  and  ferocious  Judaism.  Happily  for 
the  human  family,  a  nobler  light,  and  a  higher 
civilization,  and  a  more  blessed  philanthropy  are 
shining  upon  the  face  of  nations ;  and  we  may 
hope  for  the  day  when  nation  shall  smile  back  to 
nation,  and  race  shall  make  haste  to  succor  race, 
and  tribe  shall  send  its  gratulations  to  tribe,  and 
men  shall  work  out  their  destiny  amid  interna- 
tional peace,  international  comity,  and  interna- 
tional civilization,  without  the  drag-chains  of 
slavery,  despotism,  and  human  degradation. 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE  NORMAN  AND  THE  DANE. 

OT  amid  the  sandy  seas  of  Arabia,  but 
on  the  wild  and  uninviting  steppes  of 
Scandinavia,  arose  the  Norman  and 
the  Dane.  On  the  one  hand,  the 
perils  of  the  desert  and  the  scorching  sun  of 
Southern  Asia  gave  birth  to  a  race  of  warriors 
in  the  Arab  tribes ;  on  the  other,  the  pale,  gleam- 
ing icebergs,  the  sunless  ravines,  the  snow-clad 
plains,  and  the  ocean-leaguered  shores  of  Sweden, 
Norway,  Jutland,  and  the  islands  of  the  Baltic 
archipelago,  sent,  through  nearly  a  thousand 
years,  army  after  army  of  unsubdued  warriors 
into  the  sunnier  and  more  genial  climes  of  Eu- 
rope. Through  the  wide  plains  and  dark  forests 
of  Sarmatia  and  Germania,  the  barbaric  hordes 
of  the  North  rolled  as  an  irresistible  avalanche 
on  the  Roman  Empire.  Scandinavian  armies  set- 
tled upon  Europe,  and  gave  birth  to  the  mediaeval 
or  feudal  system. 

Westward,  along  their  favorite  element,  the  sea- 
captains  and  marauders  of  Scandinavia  directed 
their  line  of  conquest,  from  the  beginning  of  the 


The  Norman  and  the  Dane,  75 

ninth  century  to  that  of  the  eleventh,  towards 
the  shores  of  holy  but  unhappy  Ireland.  Long 
was  thy  struggle,  and  dreadful  were  thy  sacrifices, 
O  Ireland  !  but  the  black  raven  standard  of  the 
North,  and  the  proud  vikings  of  Northern  coasts, 
and  the  boastful  sagas  of  Northern  prowess,  saw 
the  sun  of  their  glory  set  before  the  cross  of  Ire- 
land, in  the  hands  of  Brien  Boroihme,  on  the 
Good  Friday  of  the  year  A.D.  1014  !  The  religion 
of  the  N.orthman,  which  consigned  its  enemies  to 
destruction,  and  which  reared  a  visionary  happi- 
ness in  a  future  world  amid  eternal  icy  palaces  ; 
the  institutions  which  ignored  legal  rights,  upheld 
might,  and  discarded  moral  obligations  ;  the  his- 
tory which  was  written  in  the  savage  cruelty  of 
bloody  deeds  and  inhuman  acts — these  treasures 
of  conquering  Scandinavia  were  buried  in  the 
ground,  and  for  ever  covered  up  by  the  right  hand 
of  united  Ireland  on  the  plain  of  Clontarf ! 

But  the  tide. of  victory  from  the  North  had  set- 
tled in  Neustria,  and  the  descendants  of  the  sea- 
rovers  whose  hardihood  and  daring  had  evoked 
the  admiration  of  Charlemagne,  sealed  the  fate 
of  the  Saxon  race  under  William  the  Conqueror, 
in  1066.  Elevated  by 'Christianity,  restless  by 
nature,  flushed  by  victory,  military  by  tradition 
and  education,  the  Normans  rolled  a  remorseless 
and  impetuous  power  over  England,  and  swept 


76  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

away   the   aspirations   of    Britons,    Saxons,    and 
Danes. 

About  one  hundred  years  afterwards,  the  un- 
ceasing activity  of  England's  Norman  conquerors 
was  called  into  a  disunited  Ireland  by  a  faithless 
Irish  prince,  and  the  standard  of  the  Dane,  under 
the  name  of  Norman,  was  planted  on  the  plain 
of  Clontarf,  and  ruled  within  the  Pale.  It  re- 
quired, after  the  lapse  of  over  four  hundred 
years,  the  introduction  of  religious  prejudice, 
the  breaking  up  of  the  grand  and  ancient  Celtic 
race,  and  the  collision  of  the  Celts  of  Erin  with 
the  Celts  of  Caledonia,  to  set  aside  the  barriers 
between  the  flow  of  Norman  conquest  and  the 
hitherto  unconquered  Irish  race.  Are  they  con- 
quered to-day?  Hereafter  I  shall  answer  this 
question  ;  but  I  here  remark  that  the  Saxons 
suffered  from  Norman  invasion  just  as  the  Celts ; 
that  the  Normans  were  the  victors  in  the  case  of 
Britons,  Saxons,  Danes,  Caledonians,  and  Irish  ; 
that  the  separation  of  Scotland  from  Ireland  was 
the  ruin  of  the  Celtic  race ;  and  that  there  is  no 
greater  bane  than  religious  acrimony  among  the 
Irish  of  our  day.  Ireland  conquered  the  Dane; 
the  Dane  returned  under  the  name  of  Norman, 
and  has  subjected  Ireland  ! 


CHAPTER   XII. 

MEDIAEVAL  ITALIAN   REPUBLICS. 

NDER  the  fair  skies  of  beautiful  Italy, 
the  goddess  of  Christian  liberty  and 
republican  democracy  was  seen.  The 
Jewish  nation  had  had  a  theocratic 
republican  form  of  government,  but  it  was  limited 
to  their  nation,  and  weighted  down  with  Mosaic 
observances.  The  black  pall  of  slavery,  with  its 
concomitant  train  of  evils,  rested  like  a  deadly 
nightmare  on  the  ancient  republics  of  Carthage, 
Sparta,  Athens,  and  Rome.  In  the  full  blaze  of 
Grecian  culture  and  intelligence,  Aristotle  wrote 
in  his  Politics :  "  It  is  evident  that  some  are  nat- 
urally freemen,  and  others  naturally  slaves ;  and, 
in  the  case  of  the  latter,  slavery  is  as  useful  as  it 
is  just."  But  on  Italian  soil,  after  Christianity 
had  conquered  the  paganism  of  Rome  and  the 
barbarism  of  the  North,  republics  of  liberty,  fra- 
ternity, and  equality  were  cradled  under  the  fos- 
tering influences  of  the  church.  On  the  banks 
of  the  Arno,  in  beautiful  Florence  ;  in  Genoa,  the 
crescent  sea-city   on   the   mountains ;   in   Venice, 


78  Ireland  among  the  Nations, 

the  queen  of  the  sea ;  in  Rome,  the  Tiber  city  on 
the  seven  hills,  and  along  the  rocky  range  of  the 
Apennines  to  the  towns  and  mountains  of  Tri- 
nacria,  the  doctrines  of  human  freedom  had  their 
growth,  in  some  places  under  one  governmental 
form  ;  in  others,  under  another. 

Though  the  oligarchies  and  democracies  of 
mediaeval  Italian  cities  were  stained  with  many 
crimes  and  crippled  with  many  drawbacks,  they 
have  conferred  many  signal  advantages  on  Europe 
and  the  human  race.  To  them  may  be  traced  the 
rise  or  revival  of  commerce,  industry,  manufac- 
tures, architecture,  sculpture,  poetry,  painting, 
music,  geography,  self-government,  and  the  ex- 
tension of  human  knowledge.  The  Papacy, 
though  a  kingly  theocracy  in  form,  has  always 
been  a  patriarchal  democracy  in  reality.  Since 
the  days  of  Athens  and  Alexandria,  no  two  cities 
have  done  so  much  for  the  advancement  of  hu- 
man knowledge  among  mankind  as  Rome  and 
Florence  in  the  middle  ages.  They  contain  more 
masterpieces  in  every  department  of  art  than  any 
other  cities  ;  and  while  Rome  has  always  been  a 
centre  of  light  and  learning,  Florence  can  boast 
of  being  the  birthplace  of  Dante,  Petrarch,  Boc- 
caccio, Guicciardini,  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  Galileo, 
Michael  Angelo,  Leonardo  da  Vinci,  Benvenuto 
Cellini,    Andrea   del    Sarto,    and    Amerigo    Ves- 


Mediczval  Italian  Republics.  79 

pucci.     Rome  has  been  the  double  glory  of  Italy 
in  civil  and  religious  life. 

And  when  we  consider  the  incalculable  bless- 
ings which  the  Italian  republics  of  the  middle 
ages  have  conferred  upon  mankind,  it  is  not 
necessary  to  mourn  over  their  shortcomings, 
their  sorrows,  their  changes,  and  their  imperma- 
nency  ;  the  rather  as  they  were  the  aurora  of  a 
brighter  light,  and  the  forerunner  of  republics, 
which  in  our  day  we  see  established  on  a  higher 
scale,  among  mightier  peoples,  in  broader  lands, 
and  under  happier  auspices. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE  BYZANTINE   GREEKS. 

HE  city  of  Byzantium,  Constantinople, 
or  Stamboul,  which  was  founded  by 
Byzas  656  B.C.,  rebuilt  by  Constantine 
A.D.  326,  taken  by  the  Crusaders  in 
1204,  retaken  by  the  Greeks  1261,  and  fell  under 
Mussulman  sway  on  the  29th  of  May,  1453,  occu- 
pies a  most  prominent  position  among  the  nations 
of  the  world.  It  is  the  central  city  of  the  Old 
World,  being  advantageously  situated  towards 
Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa.  The  Russians  have 
a  traditional  belief  that  whatever  Christian  power 
will  reign  in  Constantinople  shall  rule  the  world. 
The  triangular  peninsula  on  which  it  stands, 
about  eight  miles  in  circumference,  bounded  by 
the  Sea  of  Marmora,  the  Bosporus,  and  the 
Golden  Horn,  and  having  its  southeastern  angle 
pointing  to  Asia,  was  chosen  by  Constantine  on 
account  of  its  isolation  and  security.  Constanti- 
nople preserved  the  remnants  of  ancient  civiliza- 
tion during  all  the  dark  days  of  the  barbarian 
invasions  from  the  North  and  the  Mohammedan 
aggressions  from    the    South ;    and  having  sent, 


The  Byzantine  Greeks.  81 

through  the  returning  Crusaders,  its  invaluable 
treasures  to  the  West,  slowly  swooned  away  to  its 
death. 

The  subjects  of  the  vast  Byzantine  Empire 
were  stamped  with  the  Asiatic  seal  of  effeminacy, 
the  African  mark  of  affluent  luxury,  and  the  Gre- 
cian brand  of  subtlety,  fervor,  intelligence,  and 
refinement.  The  fire  of  Northern  valor  might  at 
times  be  made  to  glow  among  the  elements  of 
Byzantine  character ;  but  it  burned  only  spas- 
modically and  at  long  distances.  The  Byzantine 
Greeks  served  as  a  chain  between  the  civilization 
of  the  Old  Roman  world — that  is,  the  civilization 
of  Egypt,  Greece,  and  Rome — and  the  civiliza- 
tion of  our  time.  Constantinople  served  as,  and 
naturally  has  been,  the  guardian  city  of  the  Holy 
Land  ;  and  to  Constantinople  we  are  indebted  for 
a  long  line  of  ecclesiastical  literature  at  a  time 
when  Rome  and  Western  Europe  were  oppressed 
by  the  turbulence  of  the  barbarians.  The  light 
of  Christianity  and  civilization  burned  at  the  same 
time  on  the  altar  of  ocean-guarded  Ireland  and 
on  the  triangular  peninsular  promontory  of  the 
Golden  Horn.  And  when  Ireland  and  Constan- 
tinople had  run  their  course  and  fulfilled  their 
mission  on  behalf  of  the  human  race,  th.e  Danes 
attempted  to  put  out  the  lamp  of  faith  in  Ireland 
from  798  to  1014,  and  the  Mohammedans  extin- 


82  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

guished  it  at  Constantinople  in  the  year  1453. 
The  downfall  of.  Caesar's  city  in  the  East,  the 
New  Rome,  was  effected  by  the  vices,  effeminacy, 
and  duplicity  of  the  Byzantine  Greeks.  New 
Rome  broke  faith  with  Old  Rome  in  1439,  at  tne 
Council  of  Florence.  New  Rome  was  no  more  in 
1453  ;  but  Old  Rome  still  rules  the  world.  A 
mixture  of  subtlety  with  intelligence,  of  pride 
with  inefficiency,  of  vanity,  pomp,  and  assertion 
with  weakness,  hollowness,  and  duplicity,  formed 
peculiar  traits  in  the  character  of  the  Byzantine 
Greeks. 

Yet,  with  all  their  follies,  we  have  a  reverence 
for  the  G/eeks;  we  can  hallow  their  memorials, 
and  we  desiderate  their  resurrection.  We  hope 
they  may  soon  recover  their  long-lost  possessions  ; 
we  shall  joy  to  see  St.  Sophia  guarded  by  a 
sacred  band,  their  churches  recovered,  and  the 
"  sick  man  "  sent  away  in  peace.  Let  the  colos- 
sal Cossack  Empire  come  and  drive  out  the  mil- 
lion of  miserable  Turks  who  tyrannize  over  nine 
millions  of  Greeks  in  Europe.  What  is  a  Byzan- 
tine Greek  ?  Every  member  of  the  Greek  Church, 
which  to-day  numbers  eighty  millions  of  souls. 
Ho  !  for  the  Cossack  to  Constantinople ! 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE   ENGLISHMAN   OF  TO-DAY  AT   HOME. 


F  vast  wealth,  if  almost  boundless  do- 
minion, both  by  land  and  sea,  if  the 
obedience  of  many  nations  and  scores 
of  millions  of  men,  should  make  a  peo- 
ple proud,  then  the  English  ought  to  be  a  proud 
race.  If  brave  men,  crafty  and  intellectual  states- 
men, men  of  eminence  in  science,  and  society,  and 
life,  men  of  light  and  leading  in  politics,  com- 
merce, and  war,  should  cause  a  people  to  be  vain, 
vain,  then,  should  be  the  English  nation.  If  a 
splendid  country,  bedecked  with  domains,  and 
clothed  with  splendid  vegetation  and  verdure, 
and  overspread  with  factories,  and  mines,  and  edu- 
cational institutions,  and  intersected  with  a  net- 
work of  railroads,  and  surrounded  with  an  ocean 
ploughed  with  ships  of  war  and  commerce,  should 
make  a  country  haughty  and  insolent,  England  is 
that  country.  And  the  English  are,  at  once,  a 
proud,  vain,  haughty,  and  insolent  people.  There 
is,  further,  a  pampered  set  of  people,  called  the 
aristocracy,  whose  pride  is  lifted  up  to  the  skies, 
and  whose  vanity  swelleth  infinitely  into  space, 


84  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

and  whose  haughtiness  looketh  down  on  the  tall 
cedars  of  Libanus,  and  whose  insolence  is  as  a 
wall  of  brass.  They  devour  the  substance  of  the 
people,  and  dream  that  they  are  of  a  purer  blood 
and  a  higher  caste  than  the  mass  of  human  kind. 
They  are  gorged  with  the  carrion  of  iniquity,  and 
fancy  that  they  belong  to  a  high  and  holy  family. 
Drunk  with  the  blood  of  nations  and  the  sweat 
of  the  English  masses,  they  have  remained  an  eye- 
sore among  nations,  and  a  remnant  of  the  filth 
which  the  revolutions  of  ages  have  not  yet  wiped 
away. 

But  the  vast  mass  of  the  English  nation  is  a 
mighty  multitude  of  toil,  self-reliance,  patience, 
and  endurance.  The  prevailing  element  in  an 
Englishman's  character  is  a  selfishness  that  seeks 
the  things  appertaining  to  one's  self.  And  united 
with  this  is  a  self-respect  and  self-reliance  which 
are  the  father  and  mother  of  self-importance, 
if  not  haughtiness.  But  the  English  people  at 
home  are  candid,  frank  to  bluntness,  unforgetful 
of  their  words,  promises,  and  contracts,  truthful 
when  self-interest  does  not  interfere,  and  bounti- 
ful when  self-safety  is  secured.  The  brains  of 
the  average  Englishman  are  solid  and  sensible 
rather  than  brilliant  and  intellectual ;  his  will  is 
firm  and  defiant,  but,  when  broken,  knows  no 
resurrection  ;  his  imagination  is  of  a  combinative 


The  Englishman  at  Home,  85 

and  imitative  rather  than  a  creative  nature  ;  his 
sensitive  faculties  are  dull  and  torpid  except  to 
the  touch  of  self;  his  memory  is  deep,  dark,  and 
retentive  ;  and  his  moral  qualities  are  just,  judg- 
ing, and  unelastic.  In  frame,  the  Englishman  is 
a  medium  between  the  German  and  Caledonian, 
with  blue  eyes,  fair  hair,  rounded,  straight-cut  fea- 
tures, and  a  disposition  to  sanguineness  and  flatu- 
lency. In  social  qualities,  he  is  a  medium  be- 
tween the  Scotchman  and  the  American  ;  and  in 
one  thing  he  beats  the  Irishman — that  is,  his 
power  of  drinking  and  keeping  the  peace. 

It  is  not  strange  that  a  nation  of  the  foregoing 
types  of  men  should  have  risen  to  power  and 
kept  it ;  should  have  amassed  wealth  and  retained 
it  ;  should  have  built  up  a  great  country  and 
proudly  lived  in  it  ;  should  have  acquired  a 
mighty  empire  and  consolidated  it.  Once  the 
iron  grasp  of  England  was  felt  on  a  people,  strong 
should  be  the  pressure  to  unloose  it ;  for  English 
greed  knew  not  how  to  forego  its  gains,  and  Eng- 
land's army  was  the  harbinger  and  servant  of 
England's  merchants.  Yet  with  all  their  toil, 
their  selfishness,  their  pomp,  and  their  hardly 
earned  gains,  the  English  character  has  a  bright 
and  beautiful  side.  Since  the  day  an  Irish  con- 
vention of  laity  and  clergy  set  their  Saxon  slaves 
at  liberty,  I  do  not  know  of  a  grander  spectacle 


86  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

than  the  payment  of  twenty  million  pounds  (one 
hundred  million  dollars)  by  the  toiling  masses 
of  England  to  set  the  slaves  of  the  West  Indian 
Isles  at  liberty.  The  darkest  side  of  English 
character  is  on  the  part  of  the  aristocracy  and 
rulers  ;  the  fairest  and  best,  on  the  part  of  the 
yeomanry  and  laboring  classes.  The  Saxons  and 
Celts  were  once  friends  and  fellow-missionaries, 
and  it  may  be  that  republican  principles  may 
heal  the  wounds  of  ages,  and  put  an  end  to  aspe- 
rities which  had  been  fomented  for  political  and 
religious  purposes.  This  is  the  greatest  danger 
to  the  political  and  clerical  aristocracy  of  Eng- 
land. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

THE    ENGLISHMAN    ABROAD. 

HAT    deep,    dark    stains    have    been 
branded  into    the  English    name   for 
the  acts  of  England's  rulers  in  foreign 
lands  !      How  often,  too,  have  these 
dark  and  inhuman  deeds  remained  an  unheard- 
of  mystery  to   the  English  nation  !     Would   not 
English  matrons  have  stayed  the  hands  of  a  bru- 
tal, and  ferocious,  and  fanatical  soldiery,  had  they 
known  the  barbarous  and  unheard-of  crimes  their 
brothers,  and  sons,  and  husbands  were  perpetrat- 
ing in  a  foreign  land  ?     'Tis  hard  to  answer  no. 
Yet  such  is  the  lust  of  power,  and  the  greed  for 
gold,  and  the  darkness  of   prejudice,  that  they 
have  changed  nations  as  well  as  individuals   into 
fiery  fanatics,  and  raging  fiends,  and  remorseless 
demoniacs.      The  British  Empire  is  a  huge  edifice 
of  iniquity  built  of  human  bones  and  cemented 
with  human   blood  upon   the  ruins  of  trampled 
nations.     Every  vale,  and  hill,  and  stream,  and 
hamlet  in  Ireland  has  some.tale  to  tell  of  English 
outrage  and  perfidy.     A  land  of  saints  and  sages 
was  made  again  and  again  a  land  of  desolation 


SS  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 


s 


and  an  astonishment  and  by-word  among  nations. 
The  Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  two 
Anglo-American  wars  have  stated  the  story  of 
America's  woes  to  the  whole  world  ;  and  their 
success  has  been  the  rudest  shock  ever  given  to 
English  national  life.  The  acquisition  of  India, 
the  deeds  of  Warren  Hastings,  the  Sepoy  war, 
and  the  whole  system  of  government  taxation 
and  oppression  have  been  a  crying  shame  before 
the  eyes  of  the  human  family.  Russia  stands  at 
Khiva,  gazing  into  India  through  nature's  gates 
in  the  refts  of  the  mighty  Hindoo  Koosh.  The 
extermination  of  the  native  races  in  Africa  and 
Oceanica,  the  transportation  of  African  and  Irish 
slaves  to  America,  the  raising  of  race  against 
race  and  nation  against  nation  in  Europe,  the  in- 
terminable fomenting  of  internal  strife  in  Europe 
and  America,  are  written  in  letters  of  light  before 
nations,  and  cry  to  heaven  for  vengeance  against 
the  only  relic  of  feudal  barbarity  now  existing  in 
Western  Europe,  The  English  aristocracy  de- 
serves the  stern  justice  of  the  old  Hebraic  law. 
Cut  it  down,  and  throw  its  trunk  into  the  open 
air.  Cry  aloud  and  call  together  the  birds  of  the 
air  and  the  dogs  of  the  forest,  that  the  dogs  may 
be  filled  with  the  carrion  of  kings,  and  ravens 
may  peck  the  eyes  of  dukes,  and  earls,  and  lords, 


The  Englishman  Abroad.  89 

and  worms  have  homes  in  their  bones.  Spare 
the  English  people,  O  Lord  !  for,  had  they  known 
better,  they  would  not  have  tortured  the  races 
and  nations  of  the  earth. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

THE   FRENCHMAN  AT   HOME. 

INCE  the  days  when  the  philosophers 
of  ancient  Greece  and  the  rulers  of 
ancient  Rome  endeavored  to  absorb 
the  individual  in  the  state,  there  has 
not  been  a  nation  so  completely  successful  in 
swamping  the  individual  as  the  "  Grand  Nation  " 
of  France.  Whatever  he  enters  into — and  every- 
thing he  enters  into  he  does  so  with  an  intense 
energy — must  first  of  all  be  for  France.  If  it  is 
war/,  it  must  redound  to  the  glory  or  aggrandize- 
ment of  France  ;  if  it  is  religion,  it  must  be  the 
national  religion,  or  what  he  conceives  to  be  the 
national  religion.  Thus  all  France  is  incorporated 
like  the  limbs  of  a  human  body,  so  that,  if  one 
member  rejoices,  all  the  members  rejoice  with  it ; 
and  if  one  member  suffer,  all  the  members  suffer. 
The  provinces,  cities,  and  towns  have  their  gra- 
dated and  understood  relative  importance  in  the 
national  economy.  This  produces  such  a  feeling 
in  the  French  mind  that  all  France  looks  upon 
the  loss  of  a  French  province  as  an  amputation 
of  the  French  body,   for  which  there  must    be 


The  Frenchman  at  Home.  91 

either  restitution  or  substitution.  It  is  no  won- 
der that  the  enthusiastic  Frenchman  looks  on 
France  as  beautiful — the  land  of  his  love,  his 
fatherland,  his  church,  his  household,  and  home. 
And  in  that  France  of  his  affections,  what  a 
charming  being  the  Frenchman  is — cheery,  buoy- 
ant, hospitable,  loquacious,  irrepressible  !  There 
is  content,  comfort,  happiness,  and  independence 
in  society  of  all  grades  and  everywhere.  The 
street-sweeper  does  not  sweep  the  streets  of  a 
city,  but  so  many  yards  or  feet  of  his  fatherland. 
Not  less  remarkable  than  the  homogeneity  of 
France  is  its  steady  and  stern  adherence  to  prin- 
ciple. France  is  the  only  nation  I  know  of  to 
take  up  arms  for  a  speculative  theory.  It  would 
almost  declare  war  to  prove  the  truth  of  a  mathe- 
matical problem,  could  it  but  discern  a  principle 
involved.  And  yet  this  intelligent,  mathematical, 
excitable,  and  impressionable  people  has  been  the 
friend  of  oppressed  nationalities  the  world  over. 
They  stood  bravely  by  Washington,  and  have 
left  the  names  of  Lafayette  and  Rochambeau  as 
household  words  to  Americans.  Many  a  time 
they  fought  and  bled  on  Irish  soil  for  luckless 
Ireland.  There  has  never  been  an  oppressed 
nationality  that  did  not  have  the  sons  of  France 
fighting  in  its  ranks.  Thus,  through  all  its  glories 
and  disasters — and  their  name  is  legion — France 


92  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

has  followed  the  road  of  principle.  In  its  tri- 
umphs it  was  generous,  in  its  disasters  it  mani- 
fested a  superhuman  elasticity.  Napoleon  the 
Great  could  have  wiped  out  Prussia  from  the 
map  of  Europe.  Did  not  the  Jews  suffer  perse- 
cution for  eighteen  hundred  years,  until  the 
magic  wand  of  France  touched  them,  and  they 
heard  a  voice  of  the  mighty  man  crying,  "  Awake 
as  French  citizens,  and  be  free  for  evermore"? 

But  what  does  the  world  owe  to  France  ? 
France  is  the  teacher  of  civilization.  In  social 
life,  the  scientific  world,  political  creeds,  and  even 
religious  revolutions,  she  leads  the  nations  blind- 
folded. A  few  years  ago,  the  monarch  of  France 
surrendered  his  sword  to  an  invader,  and  met  an 
angry  but  disorganized  nation.  Resistance  was 
ineffectual.  To-day  France  maintains  a  trium- 
phant republic  that  is  a  menace  to  every  throne 
in  Europe.  As  it  has  been  in  the  past,  so  may  it 
be  in  the  future.  France!  la  belle  France!  go 
ahead,  and  reign  ! 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

THE   FRENCHMAN   ABROAD. 

HERE  are  three  things  that  individual- 
ize the  Frenchman  outside  of  France 
— wherever  he  is,  he  associates  with 
fellow-Frenchmen,  and  endeavors  to 
build  up  a  new  France  ;  he  conciliates  the  respect 
of  foreigners  among  whom  he  lives  ;  and  he  never 
foreets  the  land  of  his  birth.  Frenchmen  fol- 
lowed  the  basins  of  the  two  great  streams  on  the 
North  American  continent,  and  seemed  to  have 
held  it  within  their  hold  ;  but  their  power  and 
customs  went  down  before  the  colonies  from 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  Canada  still  remains 
as  a  new  France.  In  Asia  and  in  Africa,  they 
have  been  likewise  superseded  by  the  power  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  The  French  seem  to 
have  had  more  success  in  introducing  themselves 
to  the  aborigines  ;  but  the  overwhelming  prepon- 
derance of  England  on  the  ocean  has  left  France 
almost  without  colonies.  Wherever  the  French 
settle,  they  are  welcome  visitors,  as  refinement, 
civilization,  intelligence,  and  the  amenities  of  life 
are  sure  to  follow  in  their  train.    They  are  polite, 


94  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

patriotic,  and  retain  the  language,  customs,  memo- 
ries, and  social  proprieties  of  their  fatherland  with 
an  affectionate  recollection  and  observance  till  the 
day  of  their  death.  Then  homeward  their  eyes 
turn,  and  their  last  sigh  is  "la  belle  France"  or  a 
prayer  in  the  language  of  "  la  Grande  Nation." 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE    GERMAN. 

HATEVER  had  been  said  of  the  Ger- 
mans before  Sadowa  and  Sedan,  it  is 
certain  that  the  triumphs  of  the  Ger- 
man race  over  the  Austrian  and  French 
Empires  have  had  a  wonderful  influence  on  the 
German  people  throughout  the  whole  world.  It 
is  true  that  they  inherited  liberty,  valor,  and  inde- 
pendence from  the  days  of  the  ancient  Germans  ; 
but  the  energy  and  effectiveness  of  the  Germans 
had  been  enfeebled  by  the  feudalism,  Caesarism, 
and  politico-ecclesiastical  conflicts  of  the  middle 
ages,  and  its  solidarity  had  been  so  annihilated 
by  the  victories  of  the  great  Napoleon  that  it  re- 
quired the  discomfiture  and  downfall  of  the  Third 
Napoleon  to  awaken  a  long-dormant  Germany. 
German  poets,  patriots,  and  statesmen  have  been 
sighing  for  the  unity  of  Germany,  and  it  has  been 
reserved  for  our  age  to  witness  its  fulfilment. 
I  have  no  sympathy  with  the  revived  German 
Empire,  for  it  is  a  gigantic  tyranny,  a  colossal  and 
unmitigated  feudalism  without  a  restrictive  Papal 
power ;  and  while,  as  an  American  citizen,  I  cannot 


g6  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

chant  paeans  over  a  colossal  fraud  and  an  intoler- 
ant, remorseless  monster  of  power  in  the  very 
heart  of  Europe,  yet  I  do  rejoice  to  see  the 
power  of  the  countless  petty  princes  broken,  and 
the  German  people  standing  in  the  morning  of  a 
new  day  of  national  life.  Men  should  have  some- 
thing else  to  do  besides  spending  their  lives  in 
armies  to  crush  out  the  liberties  and  conscience 
of  a  noble  race.  It  would  be  well  for  Germany 
to  look  across  the  Rhine,  and  see  the  light  which 
shines  from  beyond  the  range  of  the  Vosges. 
Could  she  not  live  without  the  pageant  of  em- 
peror, kings,  princes,  and  a  multitudinous  standing 
army,  to  make  a  mockery  of  the  lives,  liberties, 
and  properties  of  her  own  children  ?  Has  the 
Republic  of  France  made  no  appeal  to  the  hard 
manhood  and  practical  common  sense  of  the  great 
German  race  ?  It  is  better  for  the  children  of 
Schiller  and  Goethe,  of  Leibnitz  and  Kant,  and 
Mendelssohn,  to  cultivate  philology  and  philoso- 
phy, science,  and  music,  and  poetry,  in  peace,  than 
to  devote  their  attention  to  the  Krupp  guns  of 
Kaiser  Wilhelm.  The  Germans  are  a  brave,  quiet, 
and  persevering  people,  and  make  up  by  patient 
dint  for  their  slowness  and  stolidity.  A  unity  of 
language  has  bound  them  into  a  kind  of  nation 
within  a  nation  in  this  country,  so  that  of  all  the 
races  they  are  among  the  slowest  to  be  natural- 


The  German.  97 

ized.  They  are  remarkable  for  their  industry,  and 
the  unity  and  allegiance  with  which  they  cling  to 
each  other.  It  is  almost  incredible  what  an 
enormous  amount  of  lager-beer  saloons  they  sup- 
port in  this  country,  and  it  is  astounding  what 
an  extraordinary  amount  of  beer  is  consumed. 
They  talk  a  great  deal,  but  seldom  fight.  Though 
the  Irish  have  filled  the  towns  and  country-houses 
of  New  England,  it  is  strange  that  the  Yankees 
have  never  given  the  Germans  scarcely  standing- 
room.  Their  course  appears  to  be  westward, 
where  they  can  find  cheap  lands,  and  thus  satisfy 
an  amazing  cupidity  for  the  ownership  of  real 
estate.  One  finds  the  pioneer  of  the  far  West 
an  American  or  an  Irishman,  among  bears  and 
Indians  ;  while  safely  in  the  distance  a  German 
saloon-keeper  awaits  the  return  of  the  adven- 
turers to  deal  out  drinks,  collect  the  money,  and 
attend  to  real  estate.  It  surpasses  belief  how 
cheaply  they  can  live,  and  it  is  incomprehensible 
how  tenaciously  they  can  hold  on  to  money. 
The  Americans  and  Irish  trade  with  all  nationali- 
ties alike  ;  but  the  Germans,  with  a  wonderful 
patience,  make  out  some  way  of  trading  only 
with  each  other.  The  Americans  and  Irish 
make  more  money  and  spend  more  money 
than  the  Germans ;  but  it  is  unimaginable  how 
much    money    the    Germans    receive    from    the 


98  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

Americans  and  Irish,  and  never  return  anything 
in  any  appreciable  way.  The  German  family  leads 
a  very  domesticated  life  ;  and,  outside  of  Ger- 
man Catholics,  scarcely  any  one  of  them  thinks 
of  going  to  church  on  Sundays.  It  has  been  said 
by  some  people  that  the  majority  of  the  Ger- 
manico-American  element  of  our  population 
would  like  to  do  away  with  the  Sabbath,  that 
they  could  pursue  trade  and  commerce  for  three 
hundred  and  sixty-five  days  uninterruptedly.  I 
do  not  believe  it,  because  it  is  very  surprising 
what  a  great  multitude  of  Germans  gather  together 
at  their  lager-beer  gardens  on  Sunday,  and  put  on 
their  spectacles  to  look  at  plays  and  music-play- 
ers. Some,  too,  assert  that  German  is  to  be  the 
language  of  the  courts  and  of  the  schools ;  but  I 
have  no  belief  in  the  matter,  since  it  is  the  opi- 
nion of  some  that  the  first  American  generation 
will  not  continue  to  speak  German,  even  when 
whipped  by  the  parents,  as  experience  has 
proved.  In  voting,  the  Germans  go  in  a  solid 
mass,  and  sometimes,  as  in  Chicago,  New  York, 
and  other  cities,  obtain  control  of  the  city  offices 
on  account  of  divisions  in  the  voting  of  Ameri- 
cans and  Irish.  The  Germans  seem  to  like  this 
country  to  make  money  in,  but  they  prefer  Ger- 
many ;  for  they  endeavor  to  build  up  a  new  Ger- 
many in    this   land.     They  must  multiply  very 


The  German,  99 

quickly,  since  they  have  large  families  and  very 
few  of  them  die,  the  husband  performing  nearly 
all  the  duties  of  the  wife.  To  conclude,  the 
American  Germans  are  going  to  be  a  patient, 
powerful,  progressive,  and  independent  people 
in  this  country,  because  they  live  at  European 
prices,  and  earn  American  wages. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE   ITALIAN. 

HICH  are  the  Italian's  traits  of  char- 
acter? Versatility  and  profundity  of 
thought,  quickness  in  conception,  en- 
thusiasm and  vehemence  in  execution, 
and  resignation  in  disappointment.  From  the 
irascible  and  exaggerative  temper  of  the  Italian 
nature,  it  oftentimes  falls  into  defects  which  colder 
and  more  phlegmatic  races  foresee  and  avoid. 
The  Italian  may  be  wild  and  imaginative,  calm 
and  contemplative,  cool  and  plotting,  meek  and 
saintly,  fiery  and  vengeful,  cowardly  or  daring, 
awed  into  silence  and  submission,  or  roused  into 
desperation.  Like  a  firecracker,  he  may  be  ig- 
nited and  exploded,  or,  by  drenching,  rendered 
inexplosive.  He  is  of  all  races  an  animated, 
loquacious,  impassioned,  impressionable,  and  ges- 
ticulating being.  What  is  his  history  ?  Italian 
history  reminds  me  of  Italian  skies.  At  one  time, 
the  air  is  dark  with  thunder-storms  and  surcharged 
with  lightning ;  the  clouds  break,  and  the  deluge 
comes.  At  another  time,  Italian  national  life  is 
like  the  calm,  cloudless,  sublime  canopy  of  the 


The  Italian,  101 

Italian  heavens.  Then,  again,  Italian  history  at 
times  brings  to  my  mind  the  illumined  horizon 
of  an  Italian  sunset.  Italian  history  presents  as 
many  hues  as  there  are  expressions  on  the  Italian 
countenance.  The  national  life  of  Italy  has  been 
one  of  glory  and  shame,  of  light  and  darkness,  of 
sorrow  and  joy,  of  triumph  and  likewise  of  de- 
gradation. What  has  the  Italian  done  in  the  reli- 
gious, social,  and  political  world  ?  In  the  reli- 
gious world,  the  chair  of  Peter  always  made  Italy  a 
shining  sun  ;  in  the  social  world,  Italy  has  always 
stood  high  ;  and  in  the  political  world,  Italy  has 
presented  a  shifting  chaos.  What  is  the  rank  of 
Italy  in  science,  history,  philosophy,  poetry,  archi- 
tecture, industry,  and  the  fine  arts  ?  Let  Galileo 
stand  for  science,  let  Baronius  stand  for  history, 
let  St.  Thomas  stand  for  philosophy,  let  Dante 
stand  for  poetry,  and  let  Michael  Angelo  stand 
for  architecture.  In  industrial  pursuits,  Italy  is 
behind  many  other  nations;  but  in  the  fine  arts 
and  all  their  ramifications,  Italy  presents  a  mea- 
sureless cloud  of  splendid  names.  .The  national 
life  of  Italy  and  the  history  of  the  Papacy  are  so 
interwoven  and  so  interpenetrate  each  other  as  to 
be  inseparable.  God  holds  that  land  of  changes 
in  his  hand,  and  may  hereafter  manifest  his  will 
in  such  a  way  as  to  make  it  unmistakable. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE      SPANIARD. 

IGNIFIED  reserve  and  tenacity  of  pur- 
pose form  the  corner-stone  of  the 
Spanish  character.  No  nation  has 
shed  such  rivers  of  blood  as  the  Span- 
ish, both  in  foreign  warfare  and  internal  strife. 
Not  to  mention  minor  wars,  there  were  three 
which  seem  to  have  moulded  the  national  charac- 
ter. It  took  the  Romans  two  hundred  years  to 
subdue  Spain.  Spain  fought  against  the  Moors 
for  nearly  eight  hundred  years,  and  expelled  them 
in  1492  ;  and  every  one  is  acquainted  with  the 
prolonged  and  successful  resistance  of  Spain 
during  the  Peninsular  War,  which  led  to  the 
downfall  of  the  great  Napoleon.  The  great 
glory  of  Spain  was  the  discovery  and  coloniza- 
tion of  the  New  World,  which  became  a  home 
for  the  oppressed  of  all  nations.  The  year  1492 
is  more  glorious  for  Spain  on  account  of  the 
exploits  of  Columbus  than  by  reason  of  the  expul- 
sion of  the  Moors  or  Saracens.  In  navigation, 
commerce,  arts,  sciences,  martial  glory,  and  poli- 
tical influence,  Spain  has  stood  in  the  foremost 


The  Spaniard,  103 

rank  of  nations.  In  the  days  of  the  "  Invincible 
Armada  "  she  was  the  first.  The  loss  of  her  colo- 
nies, continuous  intestine  wars,  and  autocratic 
principalities,  as  seeds  of  discord,  have  brought 
untold  calamities  on  the  Spanish  people.  Spain 
has  been  the  last  European  country  to  assume  a 
republican  form  of  government,  and  calls  up  the 
fact  that,  while  Latin  races  and  Catholic  peo- 
ples are  nearly  all  republican  at  present,  Teutonic 
races  and  Protestant  nations  have  become  more 
anti-republican  in  form.  From  time  immemorial, 
a  close  intimacy  of  race,  affections,  character,  and 
religion  has  existed  between  the  Irish  and  Span- 
ish races.  There  is  a  close  resemblance  of  the 
physique  and  habits  of  the  inhabitants  of  Con- 
naught  with  those  of  the  Spaniard.  The  Span- 
iards are  impetuous  and  patient,  dignified  and 
friendly,  frugal,  and  fiery,  and  warlike. 


CHAPTER  XXL 

OTHER   EUROPEAN   RACES   OF   TO-DAY. 

SHALL  not,  for  want  of  space,  enter 
so  much  at  length  into  the  character- 
istics of  other  races,  because  I  must 
keep  room  for  the  Irish  race,  the  main 
subject  of  this  book  ;  because  other  races  may  be 
traced  to  and  classified  with  some  of  those  already- 
mentioned  ;  and  because  their  history  has  had  lit- 
tle or  nothing  to  do  with  that  of  the  Irish  people. 
Of  European  races,  the  modern  Greeks  may  be 
ascribed  to  the  category  of  the  Byzantine  Greeks. 
Like  them,  they  are  fond  of  show,  ease,  and  plea- 
sure ;  vain,  indolent,  and  unscrupulous.  The 
Poles  resemble  the  Old  Teutons,  with  the  super- 
added notion  of  national  despondency  and  gloom. 
The  Hungarians  and  other  subjects  of  the 
Austrian  Empire  retain  the  character  of  the 
stocks  from  which  they  come.  The  longer  the 
Turks  live,  the  lazier  and  more  worthless  they 
grow.  Their  civilization  is  effete,  ancient  Arab 
energy  is  dead,  and  as  a  race  they  look  like 
autumn  leaves.  Let  them  perish.  Sensuality, 
indolence,  and  despotism  have  ruined  them.    The 


Other  Ettropean  Races  of  To-day.   105 

Danes  and  Scandinavians  still  maintain  the  man- 
hood and  activity  of  their  forefathers,  but  with- 
out their,  cruelty,  ferociousness,  and  marauding 
habits.  The  Swiss  are  a  brave,  hardy,  educated, 
hospitable,  and  independent  people.  But  every 
European  country  of  our  day  is  almost  over- 
shadowed by  Russia,  which  runs  like  a  vast  moun- 
tain range  from  the  frigid  to  the  torrid  zone,  and 
casts  the  shadows  of  its  peaks  on  the  shores  of 
the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Oceans.  The  emancipa- 
tion of  Russian  serfs,  the  introduction  of  tele- 
graphs and  railroads,  the  elevation  of  the  Russian 
standard  of  education,  are  giving  greater  con- 
solidation to  the  Empire  of  all  the  Russias,  and 
making  it  the  first  power  on  the  globe.  A  con- 
test must  yet  be  waged  between  the  East  and 
West  of  Europe  greater  than  that  which  took 
place  between  the  North  and  South  of  the  United 
States. 


CHAPTER    XXII. 

THE    INHABITANTS    OF    ASIA. 

SIA  is  the  largest  of  all  the  continents 
in  area,  the  strangest  in  its  peculia- 
rities, the  first  in  population,  and  the 
most  ancient  in  its  history.  It  is  at 
once  the  birthplace  of  the  human  family,  the 
mother  of  religions  and  philosophies,  and  the 
parent  of  human  society  and  civilization.  Asia 
is  a  land  of  wonders  in  its  physical  geography,  in 
its  populations,  and  in  its  religions.  In  its  phy- 
sical structure,  Asia  may  be  characterized  as  a 
flat  country,  though  it  is  intersected  by  the  most 
stupendous  mountain  chains  in  the  world,  irri- 
gated with  ocean  rivers,  and  covered  with  im- 
mense lowlands  and  almost  boundless  plateaus. 
Four  mighty  mountain  ranges  run  through  Cen- 
tral Asia,  almost  parallel  to  the  equator.  The 
Himalaya  chain,  which  consists  of  the  Hindoo 
Koosh,  the  Imaus,  and  the  mountains  of  Assam, 
extend  in  a  line  of  eighteen  hundred  miles,  and 
interpose  their  awful  gorges  and  eternally  snow- 
crowned  peaks  between  the  peninsulas  of  South- 
ern Asia  and  its  vast  central  table-lands.     Some- 

106 


The  Inhabitants  of  Asia.  107 

times  tremendous  fissures  and  ravines  occur  in 
this  mountain-chain,  through  which  rivers  and 
torrents  rush  with  unimaginable  fury.  Then 
there  is,  nearly  parallel  to  the  Himalayan  range, 
the  line  of  the  Altai  Mountains,  the  line  of  the 
Celestial  Mountains,  and  the  line  of  the  Kuen- 
lun.  Some  of  the  largest  rivers  on  the  globe  roll 
over  the  surface  of  Asia.  On  the  southern  coast, 
they  flow  into  the  Indian  Ocean  ;  in  the  northern 
lands,  they  wind  over  the  steppes  of  Siberia  to 
the  Arctic  Ocean  ;  and  in  the  east  they  meander 
through  the  Flowery  Kingdom  to  the  shores  of 
the  Pacific.  The  table-lands  of  Asia  are  on  the 
same  gigantic  scale  as  its  mountains  and  rivers. 
The  plains  of  Iran,  Thibet,  Taxila,  Malwah, 
Deccan,  Mysore,  Ischim,  and  Baraba  cover  mil- 
lions and  millions  of  square  miles,  and  are  several 
thousand  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  To 
these  must  be  added  the  great  deserts  of  the  Great 
Gobi,  Irak-Ajimi,  Kizil  Koom,  Khiva,  and  many 
in  Afghanistan,  Hindoostan,  Thibet,  and  Arabia, 
which  occupy  many  hundred  thousands  of  square 
miles.  There  are,  also,  steppes,  thousands  of 
square  miles  in  area,  far  below  the  level  of  the  sea. 
The  vegetation  and  zoology  of  Asia  are  no  less 
marvellous ;  and  the  climate  is  known  to  range  in 
the  same  place  from  the  most  intense  cold  known 
in  winter  on  the  surface  of  the  globe  to  the  most 


ic8        Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

scorching  and  intolerable  heat  in  summer.  Ar- 
mies have  been  known  to  have  perished  during 
winter  in  the  land  of  the  Kirghiz,  and  eggs  may 
be  roasted  with  the  summer  sun  on  the  Kirghiz 
sandy  plains. 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  inhabitants  of  such  a 
continent,  numbering  four  hundred  and  eighty 
millions  of  human  beings,  and  speaking  nine 
hundred  and  thirty-seven  languages  ?  The  Cau- 
casian race  claims  one  hundred  and  sixty-four 
millions  of  people  in  Asia  ;  the  Mongolian,  two 
hundred  and  ninety-one  ;  the  Malay,  twenty- 
four  ;  and  the  Ethiopian,  one.  This  huge  aggre- 
gate of  races  may  be  divided  into  two  elements 
— a  changeable  element  and  a  changeless  one. 
The  peoples  which  have  inhabited  Central  Asia, 
east  of  Russia  to  the  confines  of  China,  and 
south  of  Siberia  to  the  Himalaya  mountains, 
have  been  always  a  restless,  warlike,  ferocious, 
nomadic,  and  indomitable  population,  an  endless 
source  of  trouble  to  Europe,  China,  and  India. 
The  races  of  Southern  and  Eastern  Asia  have 
been  a  settled,  populous,  and  passive  people. 
While  the  Kirghiz  Kazak  lives  on  horse-flesh  and 
kamys,  or  mare's  milk,  the  staple  food  of  tne 
Hindoo  and  Chinaman  is  rice.  The  sedentary 
populations  of  Asia  have  been  subject,  from 
time  immemorial,  to  the  most  remorseless  despot- 


The  Inhabitants  of  Asia.  109 

isms  of  emperors,  kings,  rajahs,  nizams,  shahs, 
and  Brahmins,  and  overladen  and  weighed  down 
to  the  earth  by  the  doctrines  of  caste  and  fatal- 
ity ;  but  the  Tartar  spirit  breathed  the  free  air 
of  the  elevated  plain,  and  was  restrained  by  its 
tribal  relations  only.  The  tyrant-ridden  races 
of  Asia  erected  astounding  and  unparallelled 
works,  such  as  the  great  wall  of  China  and  the 
religious  structures  of  Hindoostan  ;  but  from  the 
western  flow  of  the  free  Tartar  tribes  arose 
mighty  nations,  which  are  to-day  the  umpires 
of  the  human  race. 

Religion  forms  the  foundation-stone  of  the 
Asiatic  character.  The  laws,  the  institutions, 
the  customs,  and  the  characteristics  of  Asiatic 
races  are  the  outgrowths  of  their  religious  sys- 
tems. Of  the  Mohammedan  creed  I  have  al- 
ready spoken ;  and  in  this  place  I  shall  direct  the 
reader's  attention  to  the  doctrines  of  Zoroaster, 
Confucius,  Brahminism,  and  Buddhism.  The  re- 
ligion of  Zoroaster  is  contained  in  the  "  Zend 
Avesta,"  which  was  first  published  in  French  by 
Monsieur  du  Perron,  at  Paris,  A.D.  1771.  It  is 
founded  on  the  intrinsic  difference  between  right 
and  wrong ;  the  freedom  of  the  individual  to 
battle  for  what  is  right ;  the  providence  of  Or- 
mazd,  the  Supreme  Being ;  and  personal  holiness 
acquired  in  the  struggle  for  truth,  justice,  right 


no        Ireland  among  the  Nations, 

The  doctrines  of  Zoroaster  are  embodied  in  the 
hymns,  prayers,  invocations,  and  thanksgivings 
which  compose  the  "  Zend  Avesta"  I  shall  quote 
some  passages  from  the  "Avesta."  Zarathustra 
(Zoroaster)  says  :  "  I  worship  and  adore  the 
Creator  of  all  things,  Ahura-Mazda  (Ormazd), 
full  of  light !  I  worship  the  seven  archangels  or 
protecting  spirits !  I  worship  the  primal  Bull, 
the  soul  of  Bull!  I  invoke  thee,  O  Fire!  thou 
son  of  Ormazd,  most  rapid  of  the  immortals !  I 
invoke  Mithra,  the  lofty,  the  immortal,  the  pure, 
the  sun,  the  ruler,  the  quick  Horse,  the  eye  of 
Ormazd !  I  invoke  the  holy  Szaosha,  gifted  with 
holiness,  and  Racnu  (Spirit  of  Justice),  and  Arstat 
(Spirit  of  Truth)  !  " 

A  PRAYER   OF  ZOROASTER. 

"  I  desire  by  my  prayer,  with  uplifted  hands, 
this  joy ;  the  pure  works  of  the.  holy  spirit, 
Mazda ,  a  disposition  to  perform  good  actions  ; 
and  pure  gifts  from  both  worlds,  the  bodily  and 
spiritual." 

AN  INVOCATION   OF  ZOROASTER. 

"  In  the  name  of  God,  the  giver,  forgiver,  rich 
in  love,  I  invoke  the  name  of  Ormazd,  the  God 
with  the  name  who  always  twas,  always  ?is,  and 
always  will  be  ;  the  heavenly  amongst  the  hea- 


The  Inhabitants  of  Asia.  1 1 1 

venly,  with  the  name  from  whom  alone  is  derived 
rule  !  Ormazd  is  the  greatest  ruler,  mighty, 
wise,  creator,  supporter,  refuge,  defender,  com- 
pleter of  good  works,  overseer,  pure,  good,  and 
just." 

THANKSGIVING  OF   ZOROASTER. 

"  Offering  and  praise  to  the  Lord,  completer 
of  good  wor^s,  who  made  man  greater  than  all 
earthly  beings,  and  through  the  gift  of  speech 
created  them  to  rule  the  creatures,  as  warriors 
against  the  Daevas  (evil  spirits).  All  praise  to 
the  creator,  Ormazd,  the  all-wise,  mighty,  rich 
in  might ;  to  the  seven  Amshaspands  (the  seven 
archangels) ;  to  Zed  Bahram,  the  victorious  anni- 
hilator  of  foes." 

A  PATET,  OR  CONFESSION  OF  ZOROASTER. 

"  I  repent  of  all  sins.  All  wicked  thoughts, 
words,  and  works  which  I  have  meditated  in 
the  world,  corporal,  spiritual,  earthly,  and  hea- 
venly, I  repent  of  in  your  presence,  ye  believers. 

0  Lord  !  pardon  through  the  three  words ! 

"  I  praise  the  best  purity.  I  hunt  away  the 
Devs.  I  am  thankful  for  the  good  of  the  cre- 
ator, Ormazd ;  with  the  opposition  and  un- 
righteousness which  come  from  Gana-mainyo,  am 

1  contented  and  agreed  in  the  hope  of  the  resur- 


H2        Ireland  among  the  Nations, 

rection..  The  Zarathustrian  law  created  by  Or- 
mazd  I  take  as  a  plummet.  For  the  sake  of  this 
way  I  repent  of  all  sins. 

"  The  sins  against  father,  mother,  sister,  bro- 
ther, wife,  child,  against  spouses,  against  the 
superiors,  against  my  own  relations,  against  those 
living  with  me,  against  those  who  possess  equal 
property,  against  the  neighbors,  against  the  in- 
habitants of  the  same  town,  against  servants, 
every  unrighteousness  through  which  I  have  been 
amongst  sinners — of  these  sins  repent  I  with 
thoughts,  words,  and  works;  corporeal  as  spiritual, 
earthly  as  heavenly,  with  the  three  words.  Par- 
don, O  Lord !     I  repent  of  sins." 

The  religion  of  Confucius,  like  that  of  his 
countryman,  Lao-tse,  is  remarkable  for  a  high 
and  far-reaching  morality.  All  the  duties  of  life 
are  laid  down  very  accurately,  and  the  obliga- 
tions of  each  state  are  defined  with  great  minute- 
ness. The  spirit  which  permeates  Confucianism  is 
a  deep  veneration  for  society  and  unbounded 
respect  for  antiquity.  The  laws  and  traditions 
of  the  past  are  looked  up  to  with  a  religious  and 
national  awe,  and,  being  interwoven  with  the 
daily  habits  of  Chinese  life,  are  maintained  with 
an  unswerving  and  unrelaxed  energy.  Conser- 
vatism is  the  main  trait  of  the  religious  and  na- 
tional life  in  China  and  all  the  Turanian  offshoots. 


The  Inhabitants  of  Asia.  113 

The  great  religion  of  Hindoostan  is  Brahmin- 
ism — a  religion  closely  allied  with  Zoroastrianism. 
Its  doctrines  are  contained  in  the  Vedas,  of  which 
there  are  four  :  the  Rig-veda,  the  Yagur-veda,  the 
Sama-veda,  and  the  Atharva-veda.  The  laws  of 
Manu,  which  are  supposed  to  have  been  written 
between  1200  B.C.  and  700  B.C.,  describe  the  life, 
duties,  and  offices  of  the  Brahmins.  In  all  Brah- 
minism  the  great  idea  is  that  of  caste.  The 
caste  doctrine  has  lain  upon  the  Hindoo  nations 
like  a  nightmare  thr  ugh  thousands  of  years,  and 
to  it  may  be  traced  their  degradation,  pusillani- 
mity, and  helplessness  in  the  presence  of  in- 
vaders. 

Too  much  credit  cannot  be  given  the  great 
Buddha  for  lifting  up  from  hundreds  of  millions 
of  human  beings  the  heavy  and  paralyzing  weight 
of  caste.  Though  he  was  decorated  with  prince- 
ly honors,  he  renounced  all,  and  devoted  an  ex- 
alted and  highly  serviceable  life  to  the  cause  of 
the  pariah,  the  poor,  and  the  slave.  There  is 
something  almost  divine  in  the  sublime  humanity 
of  Buddhism.  Buddha  states  the  doctrine  of  love 
in  his  "  Dhammapada,"  or  Path  of  Virtue,  thus : 
"  '  He  abused  me,  he  beat  me,  he  defeated  me, 
he  robbed  me ' — hatred  in  those  who  harbor  such 
thoughts  will  never  cease.  '  He  abused  me,  he 
beat  me,  he  defeated  me,  he  robbed  me ' — hatred 


114        Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

in  those  who  do  not  harbor  such  thoughts  will 
cease.  For  hatred  does  not  cease  by  hatred  at 
any  time  ;  hatred  ceases  by  love.  This  is  an  old 
rule."  The  "  Dhammapada  "  places  the  attain- 
ment of  the  Nirvana,  or  highest  happiness,  in  re- 
flection, thoughtfulness,  and  contemplation  ;  sets 
forth  many  warnings  against  Mara,  the  tempter  ; 
condemns  sinful  thoughts,  words,  and  actions ; 
denounces  foolishness,  injustice,  and  inactivity ; 
and  speaks  of  impurity  and  ignorance  in  these 
words  :  "  Make  thyself  an  island  ;  work  hard  ;  be 
wise  !  When  thy  impurities  are  blown  away,  and 
thou  art  free  from  guilt,  thou  wilt  not  enter  again 
into  birth  and  decay.  Let  a  wise  man  blow  off 
the  impurities  of  his  soul  as  a  smith  blows  off  the 
impurities  of  silver- — one  by  one,  little  by  little, 
and  from  time  to  time.  Impurity  arises  from  the 
iron,  and,  having  risen  from  it,  destroys  it ;  thus 
do  a  transgressor's  own  works  lead  him  to  the 
evil  path.  The  taint  of  prayers  is  non-repetition  ; 
the  taint  of  houses  is  non-repair  ;  the  taint  of 
the  body  is  sloth  ;  the  taint  of  the  watchman 
thoughtlessness.  Bad  conduct  is  the  taint  of  a 
woman;  greediness  of  a  benefactor;  tainted  are 
all  evil  ways  in  this  world  and  the  next.  But 
there  is  a  taint  worse  than  all  taints.  Ignorance 
is  the  greatest  taint.  He  who  destroys  life,  who 
speaks  untruth,  who  takes  in  this  world  what  is 


The  Inhabitants  of  Asia,  115 

not  given  him,  who  takes  another  man's  wife,  and 
the  man  who  gives  himself  to  drinking  intoxi- 
cating liquors,  he,  even  in  this  world,  digs  up  his 
own  root." 

To  be  sure,  the  rust  and  crust  of  ages  have 
gathered  round  the  grand  doctrines  of  Zoroaster, 
Confucius,  Brahma,  and  Buddha;  but  we  see 
that  in  the  vast  religious  literature  of  the  Orient, 
many  hundred  times  more  voluminous  than  that 
of  the  Christians,  there  is  a  splendid  foundation 
on  which  to  build  the  Christian  edifice.  Two- 
thirds  of  the  human  family  are  yet  outside  of 
the  Christian  fold  ;  and  all  good  men  will  pray 
that  men  may  see  a  reunited  Christendom,  and 
the  millions  of  the  heathen  hastening  to  its  stan- 
dard. O  Asia  !  the  land  of  the  marvellous,  when 
shall  the  day  arrive  to  unbar  the  gates  of  light, 
and  to  give  manhood  to  the  Hindoo,  energy  to 
the  Chinaman,  civilization  to  the  Tartar,  pros- 
perity and  security  to  the  Persian,  and  the  Chris- 
tian faith,  sacrifice,  and  sacraments  to  thy  be- 
nighted millions  ?  The  civilization  of  America  is 
moving  towards  Asia  with  the  rising  sun,  and 
from  Russia  and  the  west  Christianity  is  advanc- 
ing with  ocean  power.  May  their  concentrated 
glories  soon  shine  over  the  land  of  Shem  ! 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

THE  INHABITANTS  OF  AFRICA — THE  NEGRO,  THE 
INDIAN,  THE   POLYNESIAN. 

FRICA  is  the  land  of  the  unknown. 
Its  vast  deserts  of  shifting  sand,  its 
impenetrable  jungles,  its  insupport- 
able climate,  its  unreclaimed  wilder- 
nesses, its  ferocious  wild  beasts,  and  the  savage 
lawlessness  of  its  society,  have  drawn  a  veil  be- 
tween it  and  the  gaze  of  civilized  nations.  The 
northern  shore  of  Africa,  from  Suez  to  Mount 
Atlas,  has  been  known  for  ages,  and  celebrated 
as  a  land  of  unsurpassed  renown.  Along  the 
western  coast  of  Africa,  for  twelve  hundred  miles 
on  either  side  of  the  equator,  there  has  been 
considerable  intercourse  between  the  natives  and 
Europeans.  The  land  of  Kaffraria  is  tolerably 
well  known  to  the  British.  The  eastern  coast 
around  Abyssinia,  and  south  towards  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope,  is  comparatively  unexplored  ; 
while  the  vast  body  of  the  continent  is  one 
huge,  waste  wilderness,  the  home  of  rapacious 
beasts  and  untutored  savages,  but  hitherto  un- 
trodden   by   civilization.      The    races    of  Africa 

116 


The  Inhabitants  of  Africa.  117 

number  about   eighty  millions,  and  speak  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  dialects. 

Yet  Africa  was  the  land  of  the  Carthaginians 
and  the  Egyptians.  Greece  found  its  learning, 
its  philosophy,  its  mythology,  and  its  religion  in 
Egypt.  Old  Egypt,  proud  in  its  wealth  and 
magnificence,  was  still  prouder  as  the  mother  of 
religions  and  civilizations.  The  Egyptians  were 
skilled  in  astronomy,  geometry,  architecture, 
sculpture,  painting,  music,  chemistry,  medicine, 
anatomy,  mining,  and  agriculture.  Their  pyra- 
mids, obelisks,  colossal  statues,  monolithic  tem- 
ples, and  massive  masonry  are  unsurpassed  in 
age  by  the  works  of  any  nation,  and  unrivalled 
in  exquisite  workmanship.  James  Freeman 
Clarke  gives  the  following  admirable  condensa- 
tion of  old  Egyptian  life  from  Wilkinson  :  "  The 
oldest  mural  paintings  disclose  a  state  of  the  arts 
of  civilization  so  far  advanced  as  to  surprise 
those  who  have  made  archaeology  a  study.  It 
is  not  astonishing  to  find  houses  with  doors  and 
windows,  with  verandas,  with  barns  for  grain, 
vineyards,  gardens,  fruit-trees,  etc.  We  might 
also  expect,  since  man  is  a  fighting  animal,  to 
see,  as  we  do,  pictures  of  marching  troops, 
armed  with  spears  and  shields,  bows,  slings, 
daggers,  axes,  maces,  and  the  boomerang ;  or 
to  notice  coats   of  mail,  standards,  war-chariots  ; 


1 1 8  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

or  to  find  the  assault  of  forts  by  means  of  scaling- 
ladders.  But  these  ancient  tombs  also  exhibit 
to  us  scenes  of  domestic  life  and  manners  which 
would  seem  to  belong  to  the  nineteenth  century 
after  our  era,  rather  than  to  the  fifteenth  century 
before  it.  Thus  we  see  monkeys  trained  to 
gather  fruit  from  the  trees  in  an  orchard  ;  houses 
furnished  with  a  good  variety  of  chairs,  tables, 
ottomans,  carpets,  couches,  as  elegant  and  elab- 
orate as  any  used  now.  There  are  comic  and 
genre  pictures  of  parties,  where  the  gentlejnen 
and  ladies  are  sometimes  represented  as  being 
the  worse  for  wine  ;  of  dances,  where  ballet-girls 
in  short  dresses  perform  very  modern-looking 
pirouettes;  of  exercises  in  wrestling,  games  of 
ball,  games  of  chance,  like  chess  or  checkers,  of 
throwing  knives  at  a  mark,  of  the  modern 
thimblerig,  wooden  dolls  for  children,  curiously 
carved  wooden  boxes,  dice  and  toy-balls.  There 
are  men  and  women  playing  on  harps,  flutes, 
pipes,  cymbals,  trumpets,  drums,  guitars,  and 
tambourines.  Glass  was,  till  recently,  believed 
to  be  a  modern  invention  unknown  to  the 
ancients.  But  we  find  it  commonly  used  as 
early  as  the  age  of  Osertasen  I.,  more  than  three 
thousand  eight  hundred  years  ago;  and  we  have 
pictures  of  glass-blowing  and  of  glass  bottles  as 
far  back  as  the  fourth  dynasty.     The  best  Vene- 


The  Inhabitants  of  Africa.  i  19 

tian  glas:t-workers  are  unable  to  rival  some  of 
the  old  Egyptian  work;  for  the  Egyptians  could 
combine  all  colors  in  one  cup,  introduce  gold  be- 
tween  two  surfaces  of  glass,  and  finish,  in  glass, 
details  of  feathers,  etc.,  which  it  now  requires  a 
microscope  to  make  out.  It  is  evident,  there- 
fore, that  they  understood  the  use  of  the  magni- 
fying-glass.  The  Egyptians  also  imitated  suc- 
cessfully the  colors  of  precious  stones,  and  could 
even  make  statues,  thirteen  feet  high,  closely  re- 
sembling an  emerald.  They  also  made  mosaics 
in  glass  of  wonderfully  brilliant  colors.  They 
could  cut  glass  at  the  most  remote  periods. 
Chinese  bottles  have  also  been  found  in  pre- 
viously unopened  tombs  of  the  eighteenth  dy- 
nasty, indicating  commercial  intercourse  reaching 
as  far  back  as  that  epoch.  They  were  able  to 
spin,  and  weave,  and  color  cloth,  and  were 
acquainted  with  the  use  of  mordants,  the  wonder 
in  modern  calico-printing.  Pliny  describes  this 
process  as  used  in  Egypt,  but  evidently  without 
understanding  its  nature.  Writing-paper,  made 
of  the  papyrus,  is  as  old  as  the  Pyramids.  The 
Egyptians  tanned  leather  and  made  shoes  ;  and 
the  shoemakers,  working  on  their  benches,  are 
represented  exactly  like  ours.  Their  carpenters 
used  axes,  saws,  chisels,  drills,  planes,  rulers, 
plummets,   squares,   hammers,   nails,    and    hones 


1 20  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

for  sharpening.  They  also  understood  the  use  cf 
glue  in  cabinet-making;  and  there  are  paintings 
of  veneering,  in  which  a  piece  of  thin,  dark  wood 
is  fastened  by  glue  to  a  coarser  piece  of  light 
wood.  Their  boats  were  propelled  by  sail  on 
yards  and  masts,  as  well  as  by  oars.  They  used 
the  blow-pipe  in  the  manufacture  of  gold  chains 
and  other  ornaments.  They  had  rings  of  silver 
and  gold  for  money,  and  weighed  it  in  scales  of 
a  careful  construction.  Their  hieroglyphics  were 
carved  on  the  hardest  granite,  with  a  delicacy 
and  accuracy  which  indicate  the  use  of  some  me- 
tallic cutting-instrument,  probably  harder  than 
our  best  steel.  The  siphon  was  known  in  the 
fifteenth  century  before  Christ.  The  most  singu- 
lar part  of  their  costume  was  the  wig  worn  by 
all  the  higher  classes,  who  constantly  shaved 
their  heads  as  well  as  their  chins,  which  shaving 
of  the  head  is  supposed  by  Herodotus  to  be  the 
reason  of  the  thickness  of  the  Egyptian  skull. 
They  frequently  wore  false  beards.  Sandals, 
shoes,  and  low  boots,  some  very  elegant,  are 
found  in  the  tombs.  Women  wore  loose  robes, 
ear-rings,  finger-rings,  bracelets,  armlets,  anklets, 
gold  necklaces.  In  the  tombs  are  found  vases 
for  ointment,  mirrors,  combs,  needles.  Doctors 
and  drugs  were  not  unknown  to  them  ;  and  the 
passport  system  is  no  modern  invention,  for  their 


The  Inhabitants  of  Africa.  121 

deeds  contain  careful  description  of  the  person, 
exactly  in  the  style  with  which  European  travel- 
lers are  familiar.  We  have  mentioned  only  a 
small  part  of  the  customs  and  arts  with  which 
the  tombs  of  the  Egyptians  show  them  to  be 
familiar." 

The  foregoing  synopsis  will  give  the  reader  an 
inkling  of  the  great  extent  to  which  we  are  in- 
debted to  Africa  for  the  comforts  and  luxuries  of 
life.  But  the  land  of  the  shepherd  kings  and 
the  Pharaos,  of  Origen,  Augustine,  and  Euclid, 
is  sadly  changed.  Its  civilization  has  been  swept 
away,  and  nothing  but  its  imperishable  monu- 
ments have  withstood  the  devastation  of  tyrants 
and  the  desolation  of  ages. 

We  can,  however,  find  some  rays  of  light  pene- 
trating here  and  there  this  wide  and  gloomy  con- 
tinent. On  the  north,  the  religion  and  civiliza- 
tion of  France  are  spreading  over  Algiers  ;  the 
Khedive  is  reawakening  Egypt  ;  and  pirates  have 
been  suppressed  along  its  shores.  On  the  west, 
the  Republic  of  Liberia,  though  in  its  infancy, 
gives  promise  of  a  grand  and  elevated  destiny, 
even  from  the  morn  of  its  life.  In  the  south,  the 
sturdy  colonization  of  the  Englishman  is  making 
successful  headway  ;  and,  in  the  east,  the  Chris- 
tian powers  are  stretching  out  their  strong  arms 
to  suppress  the  diabolical  traffic  of  slavery.     The 


1 2  2  Ireland  among  the  Nations, 

missionaries  of  the  Catholic  Church  are  in  the 
depths  of  the  darkest  jungles  of  interior  Africa 
with  the  torch  of  Christian  civilization. 

There  are,  at  the  present  day,  three  outcasts 
from  civilization — the  negro  of  Africa,  the  Indian 
of  America,  and  the  Polynesian  of  the  South 
Sea  Islands.  Notwithstanding  the  ferocity  and 
inhumanity  of  the  Ashantees,  Dahomans,  Koo- 
rankoes,  and  other  races,  the  negroes  of  Africa 
are  a  kind,  humane,  hospitable,  cheerful,  and 
happy  people.  *They  have  many  of  the  finer 
qualities  of  civilized  life,  are  great  lovers  of 
music  and  song,  and  are  gifted  with  tendencies 
and  qualities  susceptible  of  a  high  social  refine- 
ment. The  Fellatahs  are  among  the  most  ad- 
vanced tribes.  No  one  can  find  in  Negro-land 
the  dark,  savage  temper  of  the  South  Sea  canni- 
bal ;  nor  will  any  one  discover  the  treacherous 
reserve,  and  proud,  remorseless  nature  of  the 
North  American  Indian.  The  low  social  condi- 
tion and  the  gloomy  features  of  the  negro's 
character  are  surrounded  with  very  strong  exten- 
uating circumstances,  and,  when  we  find  him 
under  happier  auspices  in  the  States,  we  witness 
the  most  satisfactory  results.  The  South  Sea 
Islander,  the  Indian,  and  the  negro  have  come 
into  contact  with  civilization.  The  South  Sea 
Islander  and  the  Indian  remind  me  of  the  verse 


The  Inhabitants  of  Africa,  123 

of  Buddha :  "  If  a  fool  be  associated  with  a  wise 
man  all  his  life,  he  will  perceive  the  truth  as  little 
as  a  spoon  perceives  the  taste  of  soup."  On  the 
other  hand,  the  contact  of  the  negro  with  civili- 
zation brings  to  my  mind  that  other  verse  of  Bud- 
dha :  "  If  an  intelligent  man  be  associated  for  one 
minute  only  with  a  wise  man,  he  will  perceive 
the  truth  as  the  tongue  perceives  the  taste  of 
soup."  Behold,  what  a  mission  for  the  civiliza- 
tion and  Christianity  of  the  world  !  Though 
Ireland  is  only  a  mite  among  the  millions  in  the 
races  we  have  reviewed,  let  us  hope  that  the  light 
of  her  faith,  her  genius,  and  her  knowledge  will, 
as  in  the  golden  days  of  her  history,  be  shed  with 
splendor  on  the  dark  places  of  the  continents  and 
islands  of  the  earth. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 


THE   SCOTCHMAN. 


FTER  beholding  the  races  of  the 
world,  we  now  approach  the  sa- 
cred soil  of  the  Celt  on  the  main- 
land and  islands  of  liberty-loving 
Caledonia,  and  on  the  green  hills  and  plains  of 
ocean-leaguered  Ireland.  Shemitic  in  origin, 
blessed  with  the  purest  and  noblest  traditions 
of  the  Aryan  religion,  gifted  with  the  longevity 
and  conservatism  of  the  Turanian  races,  glorious 
with  the  antiquity  of  the  Hebrew  patriarchs, 
blissful  with  the  happiness  of  Brahma,  pure 
with  the  sublime  morality  of  Buddha,  and 
lovely  with  an  inborn  and  inbred  natural 
beauty,  the  Celtic  race  rested  in  its  island 
homes  by  the  wild  ocean  undisturbed  for 
ages  and  ages  in  its  isolation.  The  Druidism 
of  the  Celts  seems  to  have  had  a  close  con- 
vergence with  the  religion  of  Zoroaster,  and  to 
lay  claim  to  common  Vedic  sources.  In  war 
habiliments,  dresses,  ornaments,  and  some  social 

habits,  there  was  a  near  approach  to  the  Egyp- 

124 


The  Scotchman.  125 

tians.  The  language,  or  rather  languages  (for 
there  were  four — one  of  the  court,  one  of  the 
Druids,  one  of  the  Ollamhs,  and  one  of  the 
people),  was  remarkable  for  an  oriental  copious- 
ness, a  well-ordered  development,  a  mathemati- 
cal precision,  a  poetic  versatility,  and  an  unmis- 
takably close  affinity  with  the  oldest  tongues 
of  the  globe.  There  was  in  the  build  of  the 
Celtic  frame  the  robust  vigor  of  the  adven- 
turer, in  the  Celtic  manner  the  vivacity  of  the 
East,  and  in  the  Celtic  eye  the  fiery  animation 
of  the  Orient.  I  shall,  for  the  present,  speak 
of  the  Caledonian,  or  Albanian,  or  Scotch  branch 
of  the  Celtic  race. 

In  looking  over  the  configuration  and  physical 
features  of  Scotland  and  its  islands,  one  will  im- 
mediately see  that  it  is  only  a  hardy  and  heroic 
race  that  could  grapple  with  the  almost  count- 
less natural  difficulties  which  present  themselves. 
The  barren,  inhospitable  shore-line,  and  the 
high,  beetling  headlands,  both  on  the  islands 
and  the  mainland,  together  with  the  swift- 
flowing,  angry  billows  of  the  Atlantic,  are  a 
formidable  obstacle  to  navigation  of  all  kinds 
and  at  all  times.  The  rivers  are  short,  rapid, 
and,  for  the  most  part,  unfit  for  commercial 
purposes,  except  towards  the  estuaries.  Nor- 
thern Scotland  is  overrun  with  mountain-chairs 


126         Ireland  among  the  Nations, 

and  dotted  with  mountain  peaks,  which  present 
impenetrable  barriers,  and  have  the  appearance 
of  wild  and  uninhabitable  regions.  The  winter 
months  are  sure  to  bring  a  searching  cold,  while 
the  summer  season  is  of  uncertain  tempera- 
ture. 

This  is  the  country  which  has  S>een  the  home 
for  thousands  of  years  of  the  bravest,  most  in- 
telligent, and  most  independent  race  of  which 
we  have  record  in  the  annals  of  the  world.  In 
the  barren  crags  and  stormy  mountains  of  Cale- 
donia the  Scot  was  free.  He  looked  across  the 
rough  ocean-river  that  rolled  between  Almha 
and  Erin,  and  sent  for  centuries  the  message 
of  freedom  and  friendship  to  the  warriors  of 
Ulster,  his  brother  Dalriadians  in  Ireland.  From 
his  mountain  home  he  saw  the  Roman  legions 
frittered  into  foam  at  the  foot  of  the  Grampians, 
and  rejoiced  in  his  independence.  The  gather- 
ing of  the  clans  and  chieftains  of  Albania  under 
the  Maormor,  Malcolm,  the  Lord  of  Moray,  in 
the  year  993,  banished  for  ever  the  viking  and 
the  sea-king  from  Scottish  homes.  The  great 
battle  of  Bannockburn  established  the  independ- 
ence of  Scotland  under  the  immortal  Robert 
Bruce,  A.D.  13 14.  In  this  battle  the  Scotch 
were  assisted  by  the  Irish,  according  to  Chaucer, 
who  says  : 


The  Scotchman.  127 


"To  Albion,  Scots,  we  ne'er  would  yield  ; 
The  Irish  bowmen  swept  the  field," 


The  accession  of  James  VI.  of  Scotland  to  the 
English  throne  in  1603,  and  the  Act  of  Union  in 
1707,  destroyed  the  legislative  independence  of 
Scotland,  but  left  its  nationality  unimpaired. 
No  Scotchman  will  admit  the  conquest  of  his 
country.  He  asserts  that  he  made  a  good  bar- 
gain, and,  as  long  as  it  is  profitable,  he  will  abide 
by  it.  By  stipulations  in  the  Act  of  Union,  the 
Court  of  Justiciary,  or  criminal  court,  is  supreme 
in  the  highest  sense  ;  and  from  the  Court  of  Ses- 
sion, or  supreme  civil  court,  there  is  only  an  ap- 
peal to  the  House  of  Lords.  The  old  law  of 
Scotland  strictly  holds  in  all  heritable  rights. 
At  the  present  day,  the  Scotch  members  of  Par- 
liament act  in  a  solid  body,  and  are  never  refused 
their  demands  in  the  Imperial  Parliament. 

The  Scotch  have  at  all  times  carried  the  spirit 
of  national  independence  into  church  matters  to 
a  surprising  extent.  In  the  year  563,  forty 
years  before  the  landing  of  St.  Augustine  on  the 
shore  of  Kent  (603),  St.  Columbkill,  the  soldier- 
minstrel-saint  of  Erin,  landed  in  Iona,  and,  with- 
in a  few  years,  kindled  on  the  mountain  peaks  of 
Scotland  the  united  lights  of  the  wild  freedom  of 
the  Caledonians  and  the  spiritual  independence 


128  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

of  Catholicity.  For  a  thousand  years  the  Scots 
of  Erin  and  the  Scots  of  Caledon  were  valiant 
champions  of  the  church  and  loving  fellow- 
laborers  through  the  kingdoms  of  Europe. 
With  the  Reformation  a  sad  change  came  ! 
Faithful  Ireland  adhered  to  the  old  church,  and 
Scotland  rose  in  rebellion  against  monarchy  and 
aristocracy  in  its  religious  system.  The  autho- 
rity of  the  Pope  and  the  jurisdiction  of  pre- 
lates were  overthrown  as  unnational,  anti- 
Scotch,  and  anti-Christian.  Unbefriended,  the 
Scotch  fought  and  conquered  the  power  of  Rome 
and  the  power  of  England.  It  was  the  spirit 
of  nationality  asserting  itself  which  was  brought 
into  collision  with  the  authorities  of  the  church. 
The  same  spirit  led  to  the  revolt  of  four  hundred 
and  seventy-four  ministers  in  1843,  an<^  the 
founding  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland.  At 
the  time  of  the  first  rebellion,  on  the  overthrow 
of  the  Papal  and  episcopal  authority,  the  Scotch 
divided  their  country  into  one  thousand  and  four- 
teen parishes,  and  established  a  purely  republican 
constitution  for  the  church.  The  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  seems  to  have  been  model- 
led on,  and  to  have  caught  the  spirit  of,  the 
Scotch  Presbyterian  organization. 

There  is  no  part  of  Great  Britain  and   Ireland 
which  diffuses  more  thought  over  the  kingdom 


The  Scotchman.  129 

than  Scotland.  As  mathematicians  and  meta- 
physicians, the  Scotch  stand  in  the  first  rank  of 
European  nations  ;  as  inventors,  they  are  rivals 
of  the  Americans  ;  as  historians,  they  compete 
with  the  Italians  ;  in  works  of  the  imagination 
and  in  fiction,  they  are  the  equals  of  the  French  ; 
in  speculation,  they  can  stand  comparison  with 
the  Germans  ;  and  in  common  sense  they  are 
not  beaten  by  the  English.  The  Scotch  are 
an  educated,  intelligent,  independent,  laborious, 
happy,  and  hospitable  people.  In  their  own 
homes,  notwithstanding  separation  in  religion 
and  isolation  for  centuries,  they  have  all  the 
traits  and  peculiarities  of  the  Irish  people. 
Their  love  of  song  and  dancing,  their  habits  at 
festive  enjoyments,  their  mirth  and  jokes,  their 
amusements  and  pastimes,  their  clanship  and 
customs,  their  common,  ancient  language,  and 
a  thousand  other  facts,  imperatively  stamp  them 
as  members  of  one  race.  When  religious  preju- 
dice disappears,  they  will  inevitably  unite,  and 
rising,  like  a  phoenix  from  its  ashes,  give  birth 
to  a  new  and  a  grander  Celtic  race.  The  Cath- 
olic Bishop  of  Cloyne,  the  Right  Rev.  Dr.  Keane, 
in  union  with  his  clergy,  has  given  the  initiative 
in  the  following  resolutions,  which  shine  like  a 
bright  light  amid  the  darkness  of  Irish  poli- 
tics : 


130  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

RESOLUTIONS. 

1.  That  the  time  has  arrived  when  the  inter- 
ests of  our  country  require  from  us,  as  priests 
and  as  Irishmen,  a  public  pronouncement  on  the 
vital  question  of  Home  Rule. 

2.  That  as  impartial  history  has  branded  as 
unconstitutional  and  corrupt  the  means  by  which 
we  have  been  deprived  of  our  legislative  inde- 
pendence, we  regard  the  claim  made  by  the 
Home  Rule  Association  in  Dublin  for  its  resto- 
ration as  the  assertion  of  a  true  principle,  and 
the  vindication  of  an  outraged  right. 

3.  That  whilst  we  emphatically  disclaim  any 
intention  of  seeking  separation  from  England, 
we  would  respectfully  suggest,  as  the  best  means 
of  giving  practical  effect  to  these  views,  the  hold- 
ing of  a  meeting  in  Dublin  of  the  representatives 
of  all  interested  in  the  great  question — AND  THEY 
ARE  THE  ENTIRE  PEOPLE,  WITHOUT  DISTINCTION 
OF  CREED  OR  CLASS — for  the  purpose  of  placing, 
by  constitutional  means,  on  a  broad  and  definite 
basis,  the  nation's  demand  for  the  restoration  of 
its  plundered  rights. 

Signed,  on  behalf  of  the  Fermoy  Conference, 
►J*  William  Keane, 

D.  O'Mahony,  V.G.  and  Dean. 
Signed,  on  behalf  of  the  Kanturk  Conference, 
P.  D.  O'Regan,  P.P.,  V.G.,  Archdeacon. 


The  Scotchman.  131 

Signed,  on  behalf  of  the  Coachford  Conference, 

JOHN  Cullinane,  P.P.,  V.F.,  and  Canon. 
Signed,  on  behalf  of  the  Buttevant  Conference, 
D.  DlLWORTH,  D.D.,  P.P.,  V.F.,  and  Canon. 
Signed,  on  behalf  of  the  Midleton  Conference, 
John  Fitzpatrick,  P.P.,  V.F.,  and  Canon. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

THE  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  IRISH   RACE. 

LOSE  by  the  storm-beaten  mountains 
of  Caledonia,  or  Scotia  Minor,  and 
within  view  of  its  shores,  was  an 
island  which  the  Greeks  called  Ierne, 
or  Juverva,  the  Romans  Hibernia,  the  Celts  Erin 
or  Eri,  and,  it  may  be,  an  ancient  writer  Ogygia. 
It  was  also  called  Scotia  Major,  and  contained 
the  greater  portion  of  the  Celtic  race.  The  per- 
petual mists  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  bedecked  its 
surface  with  a  matchless  green.  Eri  was  rich 
in  fruits,  and  flowers,  and  vegetation,  watered 
with  innumerable  streams,  and  superabundantly 
blessed  with  the  fat  of  the  earth.  In  that 
happy  western  land,  which  the  ancients  deemed 
to  be  the  last  of  the  earth,  there  dwelt,  in  its 
Druidical  or  pre-Christian  era,  a  simple,  upright, 
and  patriarchal  people,  whose  religion  was  a  sub- 
lime pantheism,  whose  government  was  tribal, 
and  whose  language,  rites,  laws,  and  manners 
were  oriental.  It  was  the  Hiberno-Celtic  branch 
of  the  first  wave  of  the  human  family  which  rest- 
ed and  remained  unchanged,  unpolluted,  and  un- 
disturbed   in    its    island,    ocean-guarded    home. 

132 


Characteristics  of  the  Irish  Race. 


l33 


Other  waves  came  afterwards  from  the  great 
Iranian  Centre  of  population,  but  they  were 
broken  in  their  western  course  on  the  continent, 
and  never  reached  the  western  island. 

This  primeval  people  of  Eri  was  gifted  by 
nature  with  wonderful  endowments,  and  among 
all  its  traits  there  was  none  so  marked  as  a  deep 
and  ineradicable  religious  instinct.  Whether  it 
assembled  beneath  the  dark  shadows  of  its 
groves,  and  caught  only  a  dim  and  distant 
glimpse  of  its  fire-god  through  the  lonely  vista, 
or  whether  it  viewed  with  reverence  the  sacred 
fire  of  its  lofty  round  towers,  or  whether  it  as- 
sembled to  hear  the  chronicles  of  its  bards  or  the 
exhortations  of  its  Druids,  it  was  animated,  quick- 
ened, and  directed  by  the  idea  of  the  unearthly, 
the  supernatural,  the  divine.  Whatever  tended 
to  cherish  this  notion  was  near  and  dear  to  the 
Irish  heart.  The  wild  music,  the  deep  pathos, 
the  sombre  melancholy,  the  fiery  spirit,  and  the 
magic  genius  of  Irish  bards  and  Druids  had  irre- 
sistible fascinations  for  the  Irish  race.  Not  less 
influential  was  the  power  of  Irish  chieftains,  es- 
pecially in  time  of  war  ;  for  the  Irish,  like  the 
Gauls,  were  always  a  warlike  people,  and,  after 
the  gifts  of  their  gods,  yearned  for  nothing  so 
much  as  the  glories  of  the  battle-field. 

There  was,  besides,  in  the  homes  of  the  ancient 


134  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

Irish,  an  inviolable  hospitality.  The  stranger  and 
the  friend,  the  relative  and  the  enemy,  were  sa- 
cred within  the  Irish  home.  At  all  times  the 
Irish  have  looked  upon  violated  hospitality  as 
the  darkest  crime.  Naturally  faithful  to  their 
obligations,  and  warmly  attached  to  their  friends, 
they  detested  what  was  mean,  what  was  foul, 
what  was  unnational  and  unnatural ;  and  as 
good  works  and  righteousness  bring  peace,  the 
land  of  Eri  was  a  land  of  joy.  Hence  the 
Irish  love  of  song,  minstrelsy,  and  music. 

But  when  the  light  of  revelation  and  the  rays 
of  divine  grace  were  shed  upon  this  naturally 
good  and  holy  people,  what  a  magnificent  spec- 
tacle was  presented  to  the  eyes  of  angels  and  of 
men !  The  bright  virtues  of  heavenly  spirits 
were  impersonated  on  earth,  and  all  Ireland, 
according  to  its  kingdoms,  and  princedoms,  and 
clanships,  began  to  lead  a  heavenly  and  su- 
perhuman life.  The  purity,  the  justice,  the 
truthfulness,  the  penitential  spirit,  the  spirit  of 
prayer,  the  love  of  the  sacrifice  and  sacraments, 
the  reverence  for  holy  things,  and  the  deep, 
broad  depths  of  religion  in  holy  Ireland  through 
centuries  were  without  a  parallel  among  nations. 
During  those  centuries  were  laid  the  imperishable 
foundations  on  which  the  indestructibility  of  the 
Irish  race  ever  afterwards  rested. 


Characteristics  of  the  Irish  Race.      135 

It  would  be  difficult  to  decide  whether  the 
Christian  Irish  race  has  clung  with  greater  tena- 
city to  its  religion  or  its  nationality  ;  nor  does  it 
matter  much,  for  both  religion  and  nationality 
have  been  fellow-sufferers,  and  have  given  mutual 
aid  and  comfort  to  each  other  in  the  darkest 
hours  of  Ireland's  gloom.  God  forbid  that  re- 
ligion and  nationality,  as  was  the  case  with  the 
Scotch  nation,  should  ever  come  into  collision, 
and  that  the  bond  of  union  which  has  bound 
together  the  Irishman's  faith  and  fatherland  for 
generations  should  be  sundered  by  any  one  or  for 
any  cause !  The  religious  and  national  feelings 
of  the  Irish  race  are  inseparably  interwoven  and 
consecrated  by  the  alliance  of  ages.  From  their 
union  has  arisen  the  elasticity  of  the  Irish  race, 
whereby  its  heart  can  grow  warm  in  sorrow,  and 
be  clothed  with  brightness  in  its  gloom.  There 
is  a  lovableness  about  the  Irish  spirit  which  can 
charm  even  in  its  tribulations,  as  the  song  of  the 
Irish  captive  can  make  his  master  shed  tears. 
And  to  this  cause  can  be  referred  the  assimilating 
powers  of  the  Celt.  As  fire  changes  into  its  own 
likeness  whatever  is  cast  into  it,  so  the  Celts 
transmute  to  their  own  image  all  foreign  ele- 
ments. Whatever  goes  to  Scotland  is  made 
Scotch,  and  whoever  lives  in  Ireland  becomes 
more  Irish  than  the   Irish   themselves.      In  this 


136  Ireland  among  the  Nations 

way  Celtic  and  Irish  nationality  has  been  pre- 
served despite  the  Dane,  the  Norman,  the  Saxon, 
and  other  importations.  Religion,  on  the  other 
hand,  has  received  a  majestic  impetus  and  an 
irresistible  onflow  from  Celtic  nationality.  See 
how  the  Irish  have  carried  the  grand  old  church 
over  continents  and  oceans,  and  planted  the  cross 
of  Rome  from  the  rising  to  the  setting  sun.  The 
remnants  whom  Cromwell  left  in  Ireland  have 
multiplied  like  the  Jews  of  old,  and  filled  the 
world  with  their  religion  and  their  name.  Nor 
can  we  withhold  our  judgment  on  the  Caledonian 
branch  of  the  Celtic  family.  The  Presbyterians 
of  Scotland  have  marched  side  by  side  with  the 
Irishman,  and,  having  conquered  their  oppressors 
at  home,  have  carried  their  form  of  Christianity 
through  the  wide  lands  of  the  world.  Unaided 
by  church  organizations,  and  unbefriended  by 
nations,  the  Scotico-Celtic  spirit  has  worked  its 
way  by  its  own  inborn  energy.  Alas !  that  they 
have  separated  from  the  Celtic  race,  and  have 
been  disinherited  by  their  forefathers  of  the  full 
truth  and  grace  of  the  grand  old  Catholic  Church  ! 
Alas !  that  their  ancient  love  has  been  turned 
unto  hatred  against  their  own  brother  Celts  and 
against  their  mother,  the  church,  who  in  cen- 
turies long  past  gave  birth  to  their  nation  with 
pain ! 


Chairacteristics  of  the  Irish  Race.     137 

Despite  the  shortcomings  of  the  Celtic  race 
and  the  stains  which  ages  of  hatred,  darkness, 
and  persecution  have  left  on  it,  we  see  no  race 
whose  virtues  in  the  aggregate  can  outshine  it. 
It  is  not  weighed  down  by  the  torpor  and  stolid- 
ity of  Asiatic  nations  ;  it  is  not  led  away  by  the 
imaginativeness  of  the  French,  nor  the  animation 
of  the  Italians,  which  mistakes  enthusiasm  for 
effectiveness ;  it  is  not  hampered  with  the  mean- 
ness and  plodding  dulness  of  the  Germans  ;  it  is 
not  stained  with  the  cold,  cruel  selfishness  of  the 
Englishman.  The  Celtic  race  is  religious  and 
warlike,  pure  and  hospitable,  brave  and  mag- 
nanimous, a  lover  of  science  and  adventure, 
devoted  to  the  arts  and  civilization,  proud  in 
its  antiquity,  strong  in  its  energy,  defiant  in 
its  anger,  and  evidently  marching  on  to  a  grand 
destiny  among  nations.  Though  there  is  more 
of  coolness  and  mathematical  calculation  in  the 
Scotch  than  in  the  Irish,  among'whom  sentimen- 
tality predominates  to  a  greater  degree,  I  shall 
show  the  reader  in  the  following  chapter  that  the 
Irish  nation  was  nigh  annihilated,  and  arose,  as  it 
were,  from  the  dead. 


H 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

RESURRECTION   OF   THE   CELTIC   RACE. 

DO  not  wish  to  write  of  Celtic  kings, 
and  chiefs,  and  forms  of  government, 
because  accursed  is  the  nation  whose 
trust  is  in  its  kings,  and  blessed  is 
the  nation  whose  hope  is  in  itself  and  the  Lord 
God.  I  do  not  wish  to  write  of  Celtic  policy 
and  the  blunders  of  the  Celts,  because  woe  be  to 
the  nation  that  gazes  with  mourning  on  the  sor- 
rows of  the  past,  and  sits  among  nations  as  a 
weeping  Niobe.  I  do  not  wish  to  write  of  the 
triumphs  of  the  Celts,  because  blindness  and  a 
curse  are  on  the  nation  that  live^  on  the  glories 
of  its  forefathers.  I  do  not  wish  to  show  that 
though  the  body  of  the  Celtic  race  has  been 
prostrate  again  and  again,  and,  so  to  speak,  de- 
composed in  the  eyes  of  nations,  its  spirit  has 
been  not  only  unconquerable  and  indestructible, 
but  has  possessed  a  quickening  and  vivifying 
power,  and  has,  as  it  were,  reawakened  the  Cel- 
tic nation  from  the  dead.  I  wish  to  impart  life, 
and  light,  and  heat  to  that  immortal  Celtic 
spirit  which  burns  in  Celtic  bosoms,  and  to    fill 

138 


Resurrection  of  the  Celtic  Race.       139 

and  flush  it  with  a  present,  practical,  and  living 
energy  for  battling  its  way  amid  the  conflicts  of 
nationalities    in  our  own  age.     We  are  not,  like 
the  Jews  (whom  I  call  the    Irish  of  the   ancient 
dispensation),  to  sit  down  by  the  rivers  of  Baby- 
lon  and    weep,   saying,  "  How  shall  we  sing  the 
songs  of  Ireland  in  a  foreign  land  ?"  but  we  are 
to  lift  up  our  eyes  and  behold  the  flag  of  Ireland 
rising  among  ages  like  the  sunburst  of  morning, 
and,  though  we  stood  on  the  graveyard  of  the 
Celtic  race,  send  it  floating  onward  and  triumph- 
ant   to    future    generations.     The    life    of    other 
races  has  been  measured  by  centuries   and  extin- 
guished   in    feebleness    and    decrepitude    of    old 
age ;   but  the  Celtic  race,  after  its   thousands  of 
years,    is    now     strong,    healthy,    and    youthful. 
Other  races  have  been  dwarfed   in   their  expan- 
sion by  climates,  and  by  water,   and   by  moun- 
tains ;  but  the  march  of  the  Celtic  race  has  been 
over  oceans,  and   continents,  and   zones.     Other 
races  have  been  exterminated,  or  submerged,  or 
transfigured    by   fire,   flood,   famine,   laws,   pesti- 
lence, treachery,  and  the  sword  ;  but  in  the  roll, 
and   rumble,  and  roar  of  races  westward,  noising 
like  many  waters,  the  indomitable  spirit  of  the 
Celtic  race  was  ever  seen  standing  on  the  crests 
of  the  highest  waves  of  that  ocean  with  the  cross 
in  one  hand  and  the  sunburst   in  the  other,  and 


140  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

transforming  the  nationalities  on  its  way  into  the 
glory  of  its  own  likeness. 

Many  a  time  was   it   submerged,  and   many  a 
time  did  it  disappear;  but  it  was  never  drowned. 
There  is  something   sad   and   exciting  about  its 
career.     At  one  time  holy  but  unhappy  Ireland 
appears   crowned  with   glory   and   clad  with  the 
rays  of  the  sun,  and  beaming  with  the  smiles  of 
surpassing  beatitude ;    at   another,    after   terrific 
convulsions,    she    grows     black,    and     dark,    and 
.shrouded     with     the     shadows     of    death,     and 
vanishes  as  a  vision  before  the   eyes  of  nations. 
Come  with  me  in  spirit.      In   the   golden  age  of 
Ireland  we  stand  on   the  sacred   isle.     Its  rocky 
promontories  trend  as  break-waters  into  a   dark 
and  tempestuous  main,  and  that  dark  and  tempest- 
uous main  eternallv  murmurs  round  us,  telling  us 
that  we   are   free.     And  within    this    ocean-river 
nature   spreads  out    her    undulating    plains    and 
green-robed  hills,  glad  with  vegetation,  and  life, 
and    liberty,  and   cooled  and   beautified  with  in- 
numerable  streams.      The   clouds   of    desolation 
and  death  rest  upon  the  nations  of  Europe,  and 
wars  and  the  rumors  of  wars  sound  from  afar  as 
the  noise   of  distant   thunder  ;  but  the  light  of 
science  and  civilization  that  shone  upon  the  isles 
of  Greece  and  Western   Asia,   and  the  glory  of 
Christianitv   that   was   bright  over    the    hills    of 


■   Resurrection  of  the  Celtic  Race.       141 

Rome,  concentrate  their  rays,  and  smile  upon  our 
own  happy  and  holy  Ireland.  Nations  abroad 
that  are  in  gloom  see  our  light,  and  come  to  walk 
in  our  brightness  and  our  glory,  saying,  "  Come, 
let  us  go  up  to  the  mountain  of  the  house  of  the 
Lord  that  is  elevated  on  the  top  of  the  moun- 
tains." And  at  home  an  Arch  Ollamh  writes  : 
"  O  Erin !  thy  granaries  are  full,  thy  children  are 
happy,  thy  daughters  are  virtuous,  thy  sons  are 
brave,  thy  old  men  are  wise,  thy  rulers  are  just, 
and  thy  homes  are  in  peace."  Or,  again,  let 
us  stand  on  the  ocean-leaguered  shore  of  holy 
happy  Ireland,  and  follow  in  spirit  the  uncon- 
querable armies  of  her  children  as  they  march 
ever  onward  to  give  battle  to  heathenism,  feroc- 
ity, ignorance,  and  savagery.  Let  us  behold  the 
venerable  and  patriarchal  (Jolumbkill,  as  he  leaves 
his  own  loved  Deny  of  the  Oaks,  and  urges  his 
wicker  boat  across  the  angry  ocean-river  that  rolls 
by  his  new  home  on  the  cliffs  and  crags  of  unvan- 
quished  and  liberty-loving  Caledonia.  Shall  we 
follow  the  Irish  missionary  army  to  Lindisfarne, 
to  Oxford  ?  Shall  we  see  them  traverse,  with  the 
standard  of  the  cross,  the  land  of  Gaul,  which 
more  than  two  centuries  before  the  fiery  and 
ferocious  Niall  of  the  nine  hostages  swept  be- 
neath the  banner  of  the  sunburst  from  the  Loire 
to   the   Alps  ?     Shall  we   encamp  with    them   at 


142  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

Paris,  at  Lunueil  ?  Shall  we  march  with  them 
by  the  Rhine  ?  Shall  we  ascend  with  them  the 
Alps  to  St.  Gall?  Shall  we  descend  with  them 
to  Lombardy,  and  at  Bobbio  pour  our  tears  upon 
the  sacred  dust  of  the  man-despising  but  God- 
loving  Columbanus  ?  What,  shall  we  visit  the 
forests  where  the  brave  Arminius  met  the  Ro- 
mans, to  gather  up  the  sacred  remains  of  our  mis- 
sionary forefathers  at  Ratisbon  and  its  depen- 
dencies, at  Kiew,  at  Salzburg,  and  in  Friedland  ? 
Surely  of  the  Irish  spirit  it  might  be  said  that  it 
was  "  a  vessel  of  election  to  carry  Christian  civili- 
zation before  Gentiles,  and  kings,  and  the  children 
of  Israel." 

Ireland's  life  has  been  made  up  of  very  bright 
days  and  very  dark  nights.  The  plagues  of 
Egypt  did  not  try  the  soul  of  Pharao  more 
sorely  than  did  the  sorrows  and  calamities  of 
Ireland  the  spirit  of  the  Irish  race.  "  Now,  on  a 
certain  day,  when  the  sons  of  God  came  to  stand 
before  the  Lord,  Satan  also  was  present  among 
them.  And  the  Lord  said  to  him :  '  Whence 
comest  thou?'  And  he  answered  and  said: 
'  I  have  gone  round  about  the  earth,  and 
walked  through  it.'  And  the  Lord  said  to 
him:  '  Hast  thou  considered  my  servant  Ire- 
land, that  there  is  none  like  her — a  simple  and 
upright  nation,  fearing  God  and  avoiding  evil  ? ' 


Resurrection  of  the  Celtic  Race.       143 

And  Satan,  answering,  said :  '  Doth  Ireland  fear 
God  in  vain  ?  Hast  thou  not  made  a  fence  for 
her  and  all  her  substance  round  about,  blessed 
the  work  of  her  hands,  and  her  possession  hath 
increased  on  the  earth  ?  But  put  forth  thy  hand 
and  touch  all  that  she  hath,  and  her  bone  and 
her  flesh,  and  then  thou  wilt  see  that  she  will 
bless  thee  to  thy  face.'  Then  the  Lord  said  to 
Satan  :  'All  that  she  hath,  and  her  bone  and  her 
flesh,  are  in  thy  hand.  Only  put  not  forth  thy 
hand  upon  the  life  of  her  spirit.'  "  Then  the 
vials  of  wrath  and  anger  were  opened  and  poured 
out  upon  Ireland,  and  the  nations  of  the  world 
heard  the  voice,  as  it  were,  of  an  angel  flying 
through  the  heavens  and  crying  :  Woe,  woe, 
woe  to  the  Irish  race!  The  Northman,  or  the 
Dane,  landed  on  the  shores  of  unhappy  Erin, 
and  drank  in  human  skulls  the  blood  of  Ireland 
for  214  years.  The  children  of  Ask  and  Embla, 
the  Scandinavian  Adam  and  Eve,  looked  to  As- 
gard,  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  and  learned  to 
please  their  gods  Surtur,  Odin,  Asa-Thor,  and 
Niord  by  bravery  in  battle  and  ferocity  towards 
their  foes.  The  brave  Northmen  drank  hydro- 
mel  and  ate  lard  on  the  floor  of  Odin  or  the 
Valhalla  in  the  skulls  of  their  enemies.  Alas ! 
for  Ireland  the  day  these  savages  landed  be- 
neath the  black   ravens   of  Odin    in  Ulster,   and 


1 44  Ireland  among  the  Nations, 

Dublin,  and  Iona,  and  Cork,  and  Limerick,  and 
Waterford.  This  was  the  first  vial  of  wrath 
poured  out  on  Ireland,  and  lasted  from  the  year 
796  to  the  Good  Friday  of  1014,  when  the  raven 
of  the  North  was  banished  by  Brian  Boroihme. 
Again,  these  Northmen  had  seized  Neustria  in 
Gaul,  from  them  called  Normandy,  and,  under 
William  the  Conqueror,  sealed  the  fate  of  the 
Saxons  in  1066.  After  persecuting  the  Saxon 
race  for  106  years,  the  wave  of  conquest  ebbed 
towards  the  shore  of  Ireland  once  more.  Alas ! 
for  Ireland  when  Strongbow  and  his  adventurers 
landed  on- its  southeast  coast  in  1169.  Behold 
the  second  vial  of  wrath  which  was  poured  out 
upon  Ireland,  and  it  has  continued  to  our  day — 
that  is,  over  seven  hundred  years.  The  separa- 
tion of  Caledon  from  Erin,  or  the  division  of 
Scotia,  and  the  disunion  of  Irishman  and  Irish- 
man, form  the  third  and  last  vial  of  wrath,  for 
which  we  exclaim :  Woe,  woe,  woe  to  the  Irish 
race  ! 

How  the  eyes  grow  dim,  and  the  heart  sad- 
dens, and  the  head  sickens,  as  we  contemplate 
the  horrors  of  this  tortured  nation  bathed  in 
blood  !  The  spear,  the  battle-axe,  and  the  jave- 
lin of  vikings  were  red  with  the  blood  of  Ireland 
for  hundreds  of  years.  The  veins  of  Ireland 
were  scarcely  full,  when  the  sword  of  the  Norman 


Resurrection  of  the  Celtic  Race.      145 

knight,  the  bayonet  of  the  Saxon,  and  the  lance 
of  the  Englishman  kept  the  soil  of  holy  Ireland 
red  with  the  blood  of  the  Irish  race  for  seven 
long  centuries.  Then  the  fratricidal  hand  of  the 
Scot  was  turned  against  the  Irishman,  and  Irish- 
man shed  the  blood  of  Irishman,  as  Cain  slew  his 
brother  Abel.  Foreign  mercenaries  were  im- 
ported to  complete  the  work  of  depletion, 
and  Irishmen  were  deported  to  spill  their 
blood  in  foreign  lands,  working  out  the  will  of 
foreign  tyrant  masters.  Ireland  was  transform- 
ed from  a  land  of  peace  to  a  land  we  might 
name  haceldama.  Ireland  saw  her  sons  slain, 
her  old  men  and  women  slaughtered,  her 
virgins  murdered,  her  ministers  mangled  and 
beheaded,  her  infants  lifted  on  the  points  of 
bayonets  into  the  air.  War,  with  the  savage 
tramp  of  its  iron  hoof,  spattered  the  blood  of  the 
Irish  race  over  the  Irish  soil,  and,  like  a  deluge, 
swept  away  her  towns,  her  temples,  her  univer- 
sities, her  institutions,  her  homes,  and  the  very 
landmarks  of  civilization.  "  A  voice  was  heard 
in  Ireland,  lamentation  and  great  mourning :  Ire- 
land bewailing  her  children,  and  would  not  be 
consoled,  because  they  are  not."  And  amidst 
the  woe  and  wailing  of  Ireland,  the  confiscation 
code  was  produced.  The  lands  of  sages,  saints, 
and  ollavites  were  confirmed  in  the  names  of  sav- 


1 46  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

age,  and  unreasoning,  and  unmerciful  strangers, 
whose  deeds  were  celebrated  by  Skalds  and  Bri- 
tish chroniclers.  What  is  a  man  without  owner- 
ship ?  What  is  a  nation  without  a  country  ? 
What  is  a  race  without  a  territory  ?  Still  more, 
this  bleeding,  persecuted,  pauper  remnant  of  the 
.Irish  race  must  be  enslaved,  enthralled,  and  en- 
chained. Twenty  thousand  Irish  were  shipped 
as  slaves  to  islands  on  this  continent ;  firms,  as 
Leader  &  Co.,  were  established  to  kidnap  the  un- 
fortunate children  of  old  and  venerable  Ireland. 
Then  the  laws  !  Misfortunes  may  be  retrieved, 
defeats  reversed,  and  conquests  overthrown  ;  but 
the  machinery  of  the  law  must  make  the  calami- 
ties of  Ireland  irreversible.  It  must  roll  on, 
grinding  out  the  remnant  of  the  race  regularly,  in- 
cessantly, remorselessly.  It  must  not  only  strike 
down  the  man,  and  the  nation,  and  their  sur- 
roundings, but  stamp  out  the  soul,  the  manhood, 
the  spirit,  and  the  nationality  of  the  people.  O 
ye  laws  !  strike  the  intellect.  No  Irishman  shall 
henceforth  be  a  lawyer,  a  physician,  a  clergyman  ; 
no  Irishman  shall  be  eligible  to  place  of  power  or 
emolument  ;  no  Irishman  shall  have  an  elective 
voice  in  the  land  of  his  fathers  ;  no  Irishman 
shall  have  a  right  to  educate  or  be  educated  ;  no 
Irishman  shall  be  a  common  mechanic.  O  ye 
laws  !   strike  the  conscience.     There  shall  be  but 


Resurrection  of  the  Celtic  Race.      147 

one  religion,  one  manner  of  worship,  one  God  of 
one  faction.  Recreants  shall  be  punished,  and 
the  conquered  race,  under  pain  of  extermination, 
shall  be  "  civil  men  well  affected."  O  ye  laws  ! 
strike  the  morals.  One  Northman  shall  be  in 
every  house  in  Ireland,  and  may  violate  the  wife, 
or  daughter,  or  sister  of  the  Irishman.  The 
Englishman  may  kill  the  Irishman,  and  not  be 
subject  to  the  same  tribunal.  Son,  betray  thy 
father;  daughter,  betray  thy  mother;  brother,  for- 
get thy  sister,  if  she  be  Irish.  What !  Good 
God  !  is  there  more  deep  damnation  from  the 
perverted  ingenuity  of  man  ?  The  angel  of 
Satan  answers  yes.  Gather  ye  together  the 
remnant  of  the  race  of  Job  ;  raise  the  cry,  To 
hell  or  to  Connaught  with  the  Irish  ;  under  pain 
of  death  let  not  the  mere  Irish  see  the  ocean,  or 
come  within  three  miles  of  the  Shannon  ;  there 
work  ye  out  my  laws.  Commissions  sat  to  do 
the  work  in  the  land  of  our  forefathers. 

I  pass  in  spirit  to  hills  of  Connaught,  and  weep 
like  Jeremias  over  the  ruins  of  the  Irish  Jerusa- 
lem and  nation.  I  see  around  me  the  ashes  of 
my  race,  or  hastening  to  this  last  wide  Calvary. 
Hunger  bloats  the  faces  of  some,  sorrows  and 
tribulations  bow  down  the  frames  of  others.  The 
mouths  of  some  are  painted  green,  from  eating 
grass,    greens,    nettles,    and    whatever   they   can 


148  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

pluck  up  by  the  way.  I  look  on  the  individual  ; 
the  individual  cannot  help  the  individual,  and 
there  is  no  hope.  I  look  on  the  family  ;  family 
ties  are  sundered,  and  there  is  no  hope.  I  look 
on  society ;  society  is  disorganized,  and  there  is 
no  hope.  Where  is  the  grand  old  church  of  Ire- 
land— the  mother  of  churches,  the  home  of  learn- 
ing and  piety,  the  bright  light  that  shone  over  the 
western  ocean  ?  The  wilds  around  me  answer  and 
echo,  She  is  dead.  Where  is  Irish  society,  with 
its  warriors,  and  sages,  and  poets,  and  patriots ; 
with  its  joys,  and  its  virtues,  and  hospitality? 
The  wilds  around  me  answer  and  echo.  They 
are  gone,  they  are  dead.  Where  is  the  Irish  race 
that  has  lived  three  thousand  years,  and  never 
bent  the  knee  to  Roman,  Northman,  Neustrian, 
or  Saxon  ?  The  wilds  around  me  answer,  Six 
thousand  yet  remain.  Where  is  the  spirit  of  the 
Irish  race  ?  The  wilds  around  me,  answering, 
rumble,  Unconqnered  as  the  eternal  hills  of  Gody 
that  spirit  yet  remains. 

And  when  I  heard  that  noble  answer,  its  spirit 
entered  into  me,  and  I  saw  a  rustling  among  the 
dead  bones  of  my  fathers,  scattered  over  the  plains 
of  holy  Ireland,  and  they  came  together,  and  were 
tied  together,  and  were  clothed  with  flesh  and 
skin,  and  the  spirit  of  life  entered  into  them,  and 
a  nation   and  a  race  were  before  me  once  more. 


Resurrection  of  the  Celtic  Race.      149 

N 

Then  I  thought  of  the  elasticity  of  the  Celtic 
nature,  and  how  sorrow  upon  sorrow  had  been 
heaped  upon  its  head,  and  yet  it  rose  again  ;  it 
bore  upon  it  the  superscription  of  the  Most  High, 
and  no  human  agency  could  wipe  it  out.  There, 
too,  was  the  inborn  brightness  of  the  Celtic  mind, 
which  burned  whatever  approached  with  the 
energy  of  fire,  and  transfigured  it  into  its  own 
likeness.  Its  likeness  was  stamped  on  nations 
during  the  golden  era  of  Ireland's  history.  Why 
not  once  more  ?  Anyhow,  the  eternal  spirit  of 
the  chainless  mind  shone  brightest  in  chains,  in 
slavery,  and  in  dungeons.  And  there  were  the 
charms  of  the  Celtic  heart  to  captivate  the  mas- 
ter, to  change  hatred  into  love,  to  make  the  sav- 
age meek,  the  cruel  merciful,  the  tyrant  pliant. 

Now,  this  spontaneous  and  unrestricted  versa- 
tility of  the  Irish  spirit  has  been,  in  fact,  one 
great  cause  of  conserving  the  Celtic  race.  It 
found  a  solace  in  sorrow ;  it  gave  patience  in 
adversity ;  it  had  an  innate  effectiveness,  which 
external  agencies  could  not  destroy ;  it  was  like 
the  diamond  or  gem,  which  is  a  diamond  alto- 
gether or  in  parts.  Add  to  this  the  consola- 
tion which  is  felt  by  an  individual  or  nation  per- 
secuted for  conscience's  sake.  Consider,  likewise, 
the  effectiveness  imparted  by  the  love  of  land  and 
race.     These  are  three  powers  of  unquestionable 


150         Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

vitality,  and  manifest  power  of  resistance.  They 
have  borne  the  Irish  nation,  as  they  have  sus- 
tained the  Jew,  the  Pole,  the  Caucasian,  and  the 
Greek,  through  many  dark,  calamitous  centuries 
of  persecution,  degradation,  and  imminent  disso- 
lution. And  when  favorable  circumstances  were 
added  to  these,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Irish  race, 
resurrection,  expansion,  and  independence  were 
natural  consequences.  The  American  Revolu- 
tion and  the  Napoleonic  wars  were  the  first 
blows  to  break  the  chains  that  had  been  clanking 
heavily  on  the  limbs  of  the  Irish  race.  The 
sword  of  Napoleon  the  Great  cut  asunder  the 
fetters  of  feudal  ages,  and  Washington,  with 
sword  in  hand,  stood  by  the  grave  of  the  Irish 
race,  and  said :  "  Awake,  arise,  or  be  for  ever 
fallen,"  and  at  the  sound  of  the  sacred  name 
of  liberty,  the  Celts  awoke  to  fight  the  prin- 
ciple over  again,  that 

"'Tis  sweeter  to  bleed  for  an  age  at  thy  shrine 
Than  to  sleep  but  a  moment  in  chains." 

And  since  that  time,  notwithstanding  spas- 
modic, or  ill-timed,  or  ill-managed,  or  hopeless 
attempts  at  the  independence  of  Ireland,  the 
most  remarkable  of  which  were  '98,  '48,  and  '66, 
the     resurrection    of    the    Irish    race    has    been 


Resurrection  of  the  Celtic  Race.       151 

accomplished,  and  its  expansion  is  progressing. 
Had  these  attempts  succeeded,  the  leaders  would 
have  been  Washingtons,  Jeffersons,  Madisons, 
and  Franklins,  since  success  is  everything  in  the 
eyes  of  the  world ;  but  even  of  their  failure  we 
can  say : 

Who  fears  to  speak  of  '98  ? 

Who  blushes  at  the  name? 
When  cowards  mock  the  patriot's  fate, 

Who  hangs  his  head  for  shame  ? 

We  blush  not,  for  we  feel  the  effluence  of  a 
national  Irish  spirit,  wider  than  the  boundaries 
of  Ireland,  which  is  building  up,  on  a  world-wide 
scale,  a  grander,  nobler,  and  more  magnificent 
Ireland.  One  by  one  the  instruments  of  annihi- 
lation have  been  destroyed  by  the  Irish  race. 
Was  Ireland  divided,  vanquished,  decimated, 
pulverized  by  wars  ?  To-day  we  have  three  Ire- 
lands — one  in  the  British  Islands,  one  in  Amer- 
ica, one  in  Australia.  Was  Ireland  confiscated  ? 
To-day  the  Irish  race  holds  the  title-deeds  of 
land  ten  times  the  area  of  old  Ireland.  Was 
Ireland  oppressed  by  legislation  ?  To-day  the 
Irish  race  can  control  the  destinies  of  the  two 
greatest  governments  on  the  globe.  Did  laws 
degrade  the  Irish  intellect,  corrupt  the  Irish 
morals,    and   trample   on   the   Irish    conscience? 


152  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

To-day  Irish  intellect  is  a  password  to  f.ower, 
preferment,  and  emolument  the  world  over ; 
Irish  good  morals  an  undoubted  guarantee  to 
confidence,  and  Irish  conscience  as  free  as  the 
light  of  God's  sun  or  the  free  winds  of  God's 
heavens.  Was  the  Irish  race  reduced  to  six  hun- 
dred thousand  ?  To-day  I  would  set  down  the 
Irish  and  those  of  Irish  descent  at  twenty,  and 
the  Celtic  race  at  thirty  millions  of  human 
beings.  And  of  all  races  who  have  suffered 
shipwreck,  the  Irish  nation  has  lost  the  least. 
What  is  that?  I  mean  its  language.  And  of 
that  we  can  say  that  its  loss  is  a  financial,  edu- 
cational, and  political  gain.  Besides,  it  is  not 
thoroughly  dead,  but,  as  a  friend  of  mine,  the 
late  Father  Mullen,  wrote, 

"  'Tis  fading,  oh  !  'tis  fading,  like  leaves  upon  the  trees  ; 
In  murmuring  tones  'tis  dying,  like  wail  upon  the  breeze  ; 
'Tis  fastlv  disappearing,  like  footprints  on  the  shore, 
Where  the  Barrow  and  the  Bann  and  Lough  Erne's  waters  roar." 

What  shall  we  say,  then  ?  Was  not  the  Irish 
race  dead  ?  Has  the  Irish  race  risen  from  the  dead  ? 
Was  not  the  Irish  race  dead — dead  by  wars,  con- 
fiscation, legislation,  treachery ;  dead  in  educa- 
tion and  arts,  in  religious  liberty,  and  numbers, 
and  possessions ;  dead  ecclesiastically,  politically, 
and  nationally  as  a  race  ?  But  did  not  the  im- 
mortal spirit  of  the  Irish  race  by  its  elasticity, 


Resurrection  of  the  Celtic  Race.      153 

its  inborn  brightness  of  mind,  the  charms  of  its 
heart  ;  by  its  own  spontaneous  and  unrestricted 
versatility,  under  favorable  circumstances,  quick- 
en, reanimate,  reawaken,  and  recall  the  Celtic 
race  to  a  new  and  glorious  resurrection? 

The  Irish  race  was  like  Lazarus  in  the  tomb  ; 
it  has  put  off  the  bandages  of  death ;  let  it  be 
like  Lazarus  in  life.  The  Irish  race  was  like  Job 
sitting  on  a  dunghill  and  saying:  "  Let  the  day 
wherein  I  was  born  be  turned  into  darkness,  let  a 
mist  overspread  it,  let  it  be  wrapped  up  in  bitter- 
ness ";  would  it  were  like  Job,  at  home  in  Ire- 
land, in  his  old  age  :  "  And  the  Lord  blessed  the 
latter  days  of  Job  more  than  the  beginning." 
We  saw  the  Irish  race  drinking  the  cup  of  tribu- 
lations and  of  woe  to  the  dregs  ;  we  saw  the  light 
of  nations  turned  into  a  dark  cloud ;  we  saw  it 
like  QEdipus,  in  the  great  tragedy  of  Sophocles, 
turned  out  from  nations  with  its  eyes  plucked 
out  and  its  eyeballs  dripping  with  blood,  in  wail 
and  lamentation — 

"  Alas !  alas  !    Ah  me  unfortunate  ! 
Where  in  the  world  am  I  going  to  ? 
Ah  me  !  oppressed  with  night  unseen,  untold, " 
Unwelcome !  " 

It  has  found  new  homes,  and  friends,  and  des- 
tinies in  foreign  lands.      The  dark  clouds  have 


154  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

been  lifted  from  it.  It  still  has  its  nationality  in 
thought,  in  genius,  in  aspiration,  and  in  the  in- 
eradicable goodness  and  inexhaustible  charity  it 
inherits  from  of  old.  It  loves  the  cross  with  the 
same  love  as  of  old : 

"  We  love  the  glorious  standard 
That  gladdened  Constantine, 
We  love  the  glorious  standard 
That  paled  the  Moslem  line, 
We  love  the  sacred  emblem 
The  glad  Heraclius  held, 
We  love  the  sacred  emblem 
Clontarf  long  since  beheld  ; 
Ah  !  with  the  joyous  feelings 
Which,  as  the  wild  waves  toss, 
Poured  o'er  the  heart  of  Helen, 
We  love  the  holy  cross." 

It  loves  the  shamrock,  the  emblem  of  the  Trin- 
ity ;  it  loves  the  harp,  the  symbol  of  its  music 
and  its  misery ;  it  loves  the  wolf-dog,  the  type 
of.  its  daring ;  it  loves  the  sunburst,  the  sequel 
of  its  glory ;  and  it  loves  O'Neill's  and  O'Don- 
nell's  red-war-hand,  the  banner  of  its  bravery. 

What,  then,  do  I  say?  I  desiderate  the  soli- 
darity of  the  Irish  race.  I  wish  that  the  scattered 
sons  of  Erin  should  be  banded  together  wherever 
found,  under  whatsoever  government,  in  what- 
soever clime,  and  form  a  compact  union  of  in- 
telligence,   wealth,    and    patriotism.      Union    is 


Resurrection  of  the  Celtic  Race.       155 

strength,  and  from  strength  will  spring  greater 
and  greater  expansion,  and  from  expansion, 
under  union,  will  issue  independence  and  free- 
dom. I  would  like  the  Irish  race  to  follow  the 
example  of  the  great  German  nation,  which  has 
been  the  prey  of  disunion  for  centuries,  and 
whose  poets  and  patriots  have  been  sighing  for 
solidarity  for  ages.  They  have  at  length  at- 
tained it.  I  would  thus,  so  to  speak,  Irishize 
their  national  war-song : 

Up  swells  the  Bann,  the  Irish  sea— 
Up  swells  the  Irish  wave  ; 
Suir  runs  to  battle  merrily, 
And  Shannon  grasps  the  glaive. 
Liffey  and  Barrow  tarry  not, 
And  Lee  flows  eager  on  ; 
All  old  disunion  is  forgot — 
The  Irish  race  is  one  ! 

Again,  I  desiderate  organization.  Organ- 
ization is  not  only  strength,  but  effective  and 
available  strength.  The  study  of  organization, 
whether  it  be  in  church  societies,  or  temperance 
societies,  or  political  societies,  will  give  the  Irish 
race  a  knowledge  they  very  much  need.  Every 
Irishman  who  knows  nothing  of  organization,  and 
is  unwilling  to  be  organized,  is  useless  to  his 
country.  But  in  the  hour  of  need,  and  when  the 
proper  time  comes,  and  the  bugle  of  the  Irish  or 


156  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

Celtic  race  is  heard,  organized  bodies  easily  and 
readily  coalesce.  Next,  I  desiderate  an  educated 
Irish  race.  Education  and  institutions  make  the 
man.  No  educated  man  can  be  a  slave.  Edu- 
cation gives  meaning  and  purpose  to  unity  and 
organization.  Educate  the  Irish  race,  and  it  shall 
be  free.  Lastly,  through  all  the  relations  of  life, 
and  in  all  countries  where  my  race  has  the  right, 
I  desiderate  an  intelligent  and  independent  use 
of  the  ballot.  Education  and  the  ballot  are  the 
eyes  of  an  independent  commonwealth.  Unity 
and  organization  will  give  an  independent  Ire- 
land ;  education  and  the  ballot  will  preserve  its 
life  and  make  it  everlasting. 


CHAPTER   XXVII. 


THE    IRISH    RACE    ABROAD. 

PON  the  wide  face  of  the  earth  there 
has  been  no  nation  more  attached  to 
the  land  of  its  forefathers  than  the 
Irish.  From  time  immemorial  they 
settled  on  the  hills  and  plains  and  by  the  streams 
of  Erin  according  to  chieftainries,  and  clanships, 
and  families.  They  loved  their  localities  with  a 
living  and  passionate  love,  down  to  their  farms, 
and  fields,  and  streams  ;  their  towns,  and  churches, 
and  graveyards,  and  ruins.  Migrations  are  un- 
common in  the  annals  of  Ireland,  unless  where 
we  read  of  some  great  social  convulsion,  as  in  the 
days  of  Cromwell  and  Sarsheld.  In  the  early 
Christian  ages  of  Ireland  ;  travelling  was  a  second 
nature  of  the  Irish  ;  but  the  Irish  travellers  were 
generally  scholars,  saints,  or  missionaries,  intent 
upon  some  high  social  or  religious  purpose.  At 
the  beginning,  however,  of  the  present  genera- 
tion, the  united  forces  of  famine,  pestilence,  exter- 
mination, and  oppression  burst  asunder  the  bar- 

157 


158  Ireland  among  the  Nations, 

riers  of  Ireland,  and  sent  the  Celts,  with  drooping 
frames,  and  broken  hearts,  and  blighted  hopes,  as 
exiles  over  oceans  and  continents.  Who  can  tell 
the  pent-up  feelings  of  anguish,  and  the  wild  fury 
of  despair,  and  the  ineradicable  feeling  of  ven- 
geance that  settled  on  the  Irish  race,  as  it  has- 
tened to  the  shore  of  Ireland  to  abandon  for  ever 
the  hamlets  of  its  fathers,  and  the  chapels  of  its 
devotion,  and  the  graves  of  its  ancestors  ?  What 
a  fiery  ordeal  for  the  aged  father  and  the  saintly 
mother,  for  the  brave  son  and  the  noble  daughter, 
to  sunder  the  memories  of  home,  to  be  severed 
from  the  ties  of  one's  native  place,  and  to  be 
borne  away  to  a  grave  in  an  unknown  and  foreign 
land! 

In  the  general  upheaval  of  Irish  society  during 
the  great  exodus  of  our  generation,  a  man's 
means  determined,  as  a  rule,  the  length  of  his 
voyage.  Those  who  had  money  enough  went  to 
Australia;  those  who  could  not  go  to  Australia 
came  to  the  States  or  to  Canada ;  those  who 
could  not  come  to  America  went  to  England  ; 
those  who  could  not  go  to  England  went  to  Scot- 
land or  Wales.  Wherever  they  went,  they  carried 
with  them  an  intense  hatred  for  England,  an 
undying  love  of  the  Catholic  faith,  and  an  imper- 
ishable affection  for  old  Ireland. 

In    England,   Scotland,    and    Wales   very   few 


The  Irish  Race  Abroad.  159 

Irishmen  have  made  independent  fortunes.  They 
number  millions,  but,  with  the  exception  of 
building  up  a  Catholic  church,  which  is  governed 
by  a  number  of  English  converts,  they  have  made 
little  impression  on  Britain's  national  life.  They 
seem  to  be  largely  indoctrinated  with  republican 
ideas,  and  to  cherish  sympathy  with  the  English 
liberals.  In  that  way  they  may  yet  be  a  very 
influential  element,  especially,  in  the  large  manu- 
facturing towns. 

In  Canada  and  Australia  the  development  of 
new  countries  has  awakened  the  Irish  spirit  and 
given  a  wholesome  impetus  to  Irish  energy. 
Unaccustomed  to  manufactures  in  the  old  country, 
indifferent  to  learning  trades,  and  never  aroused 
by  incentives  to  labor,  the  Irish,  for  the  most 
part,  looked  for  sustenance  to  agriculture  and 
farming.  Free  lands,  and,  as  in  Australia,  a  favora- 
ble climate  and  encouraging  legislation,  have 
called  forth  all  the  talent  and  energy  of  Irishmen, 
and  placed  them,  with  glorious  prospects,  in 
happy  homes. 

The  United  States,  however,  have  proved  to 
be  the  Promised  Land  of  the  Irish  race.  The 
Irishman  left  the  accursed  flag  of  England,  with 
all  its  stinging  memories,  behind  him  ;  and,  as  he 
enrolled  himself  under  the  banner  of  Columbia, 
a  heavy  weight  was  lifted  from  off  his  soul,  and 


1 60  Ireland  among"  the  Nations, 


ci> 


his  heart  jumped  for  joy.     He  was  born  to   an 
equality  with  the  nations  of  the  earth,  and,  in  the 
dignity  of  his  new  nation,  he  felt  himself  a  sove- 
reign.    Instead  of  the  miseries  of  his  native  land 
and  the  melancholy  scenes  he  had  left  behind  him, 
he  saw  a  bright  and  unbounded  horizon  expand 
before  his  gladdened  eyes.     Since  the  days  of  the 
Irish  exodus  to  its  present  status  in  the  United 
States,  the  Irish  people  have  undergone  long  and 
arduous  labors,  untold  hardships  and  sufferings  ; 
but  after  many  privations,  calamities,  and  disas- 
ters,   the  night  is    nigh   past,  and  the  work   of 
migration  and  settlement  nigh  accomplished.    On  ■ 
the  whole,  it  has  been  well  done  ;  and   I  am  glad 
to  say  that  in  religion,  truthfulness,  and  patriot- 
ism the  Irish-American  generation  is  equal  to  its 
fathers,  while  in  intelligence  and  manhood  it  sur- 
passes them.     The  Irish  hold  a  grand  position  in 
America  to-day. 

Mistakes  have  been  made  in  the  transplanta- 
tion of  the  Irish  race  ;  but  the  Irish  came  without 
leaders  and  without  friends — a  vast  multitude  of 
impoverished  and  uneducated  exiles  in  a  foreign 
land.  Their  notions  of  government  schools  in 
the  old  country  did  not  allow  them  to  avail  them- 
selves of  the  educational  system  to  its  full  extent 
in  the  new  land ;  and  the  great  want  of  spiritual 
directors  in    this  wide   country  left  them  in  an 


The  Irish  Race  Abroad,  161 

unintelligible  and  most  perplexing  dilemma.  The 
Irish,  of  course,  through  a  want  of  knowledge, 
made  a  great  mistake  in  not  directing  their  atten- 
tion to  real  estate.  And  this  evil  was  aggravated 
by  the  paradoxical  tenacity  with  which  large 
agricultural  populations  settled  down  in  and 
clung  to  large  cities.  Nor  were  the  Irish  bene- 
fited by  their  directors.  At  an  early  stage  of 
emigration,  when  they  were  without  the  clergy, 
their  traditional  and  natural  leaders,  they  were 
taken  hold  of  by  the  politicians.  Whom  in  the 
world  have  politicians  benefited  ?  When  or  where 
were  they  not  selfish  and  corrupt  ?  How  have 
they  benefited,  or  rather  how  have  they  not 
degraded,  the  Irish  race  in  America?  The  schools 
of  the  politicians  have  been  the  liquor-saloons ; 
and,  alas  !  who  can  tell  the  infamy,  sorrows, 
demoralization,  destitution,  and  degradation 
which  noble-hearted  Irishmen  have  garnered,  as 
fatal  fruits,  in  those  ]ycea  of  national  death  ? 
The  Irish  national  press  of  America,  instead  of 
leading,  was  led  by,  the  fatal  current,  and  encour- 
aged political  partisanship  to  the  detriment  of 
intellectual  independence.  Things  are  changed 
now,  and  it  is  unnecessary  to  speak  of  what  is 
known  to  all.  Nor  shall  I  find  fault  with  the 
Irish  race  where  I  find  so  much  to  praise  ;  because 
the  whole  body  is  lovely  and  beautiful,  and  its 


1 62  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

freckles  are  scarcely  perceptible.  Besides  the 
influences  just  mentioned,  there  is  another  far 
more  powerful — the  Catholic  Church,  whose  for- 
mative elements  in  the  United  States  I  shall 
enquire  into  in  the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

THE    FORMATIVE    ELEMENTS   OF   THE    CATHOLIC 
CHURCH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

DO  not  purpose  to  write  of  the  organ- 
ism of  the  Catholic  Church  in  the 
United  States,  nor  of  the  worthy  liv- 
ing prelates  by  whom  it  is  governed, 
nor  of  its  temporal  standing  or  social  and  politi- 
cal relations.  I  shall  rather  state  the  active 
causes  in  the  mental  training  of  the  United 
States  Catholic  Church,  and  the  formative  ele- 
ments of  its  theological  life.  As  the  clergy  is 
the  teaching  body  of  the  laity,  and  the  episco- 
pacy moulds  the  clergy  to  its  own  likeness,  I 
shall  confine  my  attention  to  the  deceased  pre- 
lates of  the  Union,  who,  in  future  time,  are 
destined  to  be  reverenced  as  the  fathers  of 
the  American  Church.  Their  lives  have  been 
written  by  Mr.  Clarke,  and  are  published  by 
Mr.  O'Shea.  Though  there  is  a  sameness  in 
his  description  of  characters,  and  an  evident 
fear  of  entering  into  a  critical  examination  of 
the  dead,  because  they  were  bishops ,  though 
Mr.   Clarke  wants  the  power  of  individualizing 

163 


1 64  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

characters,  and  is  defective  in  the  faculty  of  in- 
vestigation and  communication  ;  and  though  he 
seems  to  be  somewhat  biassed  towards  South- 
ern bishops,  his  book  is  a  useful  collection  of 
episcopal   memoirs,  and  will  repay  perusal. 

Young  in  years,  but  bold  in  energy,  the  Catho- 
lic Church  has  grown  to  be  a  power  in  the  United 
States,  and  one  of  the  most  flourishing  national 
churches  in  communion  with  the  Holy  See.  It 
is  a  matter  of  deep  interest  to  Americans,  and 
especially  to  Irish-Americans,  how  the  Catholic 
Church  has  grown  so  rapidly  in  this  country, 
from  what  elements  it  has  been  moulded,  and 
how  it  has  attained  its  present  form  in  thought 
and  structure. 

When  the  empire  of  the  sea  and  the  hegemony 
of  Europe  passed  from  the  countries  by  the  Tagus 
and  the  Danube  to  the  lands  of  the  Thames  and 
the  Seine,  a  new  philosophy,  new  discoveries,  new 
enterprise,  and  a  new  spirit  of  progress  were  given 
to  the  human  race.  After  a  long  and  doubtful 
contest  between  the  descendants  of  the  Normans 
and  the  Franks,  a  line  was  pretty  clearly  marked, 
whereby  France  was  master  on  the  Continent,  and 
in  its  armies,  civilization,  and  energy  held  the 
leadership  of  continental  European  nations.  But 
England  became  mistress  of  the  ocean,  first  in 
wealth,  first   in   navy,  first   in   colonies,  and  first 


The  Formative  Elements.  165 

in   transoceanic    and   transcontinental   influences. 
Since  the  days  of  the  Roman  Empire,  no  nation 
welded  so  many  millions  of  distinct  nationalities 
together,  and,  though  they  differed  in  language, 
religion,   and   national  aspirations,  held  them  to- 
gether beneath   the  same   sceptre  with  a  firmer 
grasp,  than  did  the  English  people.     The  mind 
of   France    seemed    to    have   grasped   and    nigh 
gained  the  North  American  continent,  vast  as  it 
was.     Two  waves  of  French  settlers  rolled  along 
the    banks  of  the   two    great    arteries  of   North 
America — the  Mississippi  and  St.  Lawrence — till 
they  met  in  the  vast  prairie-lands  of  the  North' 
west.     These  settlers  imported  and   planted    on 
the   banks   of  those    streams    and    their   feeders 
the  names,  the  religion,  the  institutions,  and  the 
memories   of  Mother  France.     But  the  mastery 
of  the  sea  gave  the  hegemony  to  England  among 
European  nations  on  the  North  American  conti- 
nent.    The  English  language,  English  laws,  Eng- 
lish religion,  and   English  authority  were  estab- 
lished on  this  soil,  and  the  fond  hope  of  France 
was   dispelled.      The   religious   influences   of  the 
early  French   settlers   seem    to    have   alone   sur- 
vived   the    disappearance    of    French    authority. 
Three    causes    have    concurred    to   contribute   to 
this  fact — first,  the  raising  up  and  establishment 
of  the  United  States  as  the  asylum  of  the  world  ; 


1 66  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

next,  tne   French  Revolution,  and   ostracism   of 
the   French    Roman    Catholic   clergy ;    next,   the 
political  and  religious  disabilities,  and  the  conse- 
quent exodus,  of  the  Celtic  race  in   Ireland.     A 
traditional    friendship   between    the    French   and 
Irish  nations,  and  a  common   religion,  served  to 
keep  alive  memories  and  institutions  which  were 
introduced  by  the  early  French  settlers,  and  were 
destined  to  disappear,  were  it  not  for  the  influx 
of  the  Irish  race.     In  her  long  life  of  tribulation 
and   persecution   Ireland   became   the   pupil    and 
protegee  of  France.     Thus,  it  seems  to  me,  arose 
on   this  continent  a   Franco-Irish-American   hie- 
rarchy.    Of  the  deceased  prelates  in  the  United 
States  Catholic  Church  sixteen  were  born  in  Ire- 
land— Concannen,  Egan,   Connolly,  Kelly,   Eng- 
land, Conwell,  Kenrick,  Clancy,  Hughes,  Quarter, 
Byrne,  O'Reilly,  Gartland,  Smith,  Barry,  Barron  ; 
sixteen   in    France — Flaget.  Cheverus,   Dubourg, 
Marechal,  David,  Dubois,   Portier,   Brute,   Blanc, 
Loras,    Odin,    Blazin,    Cretin,    Junker,     Lavialle, 
Janson ;    thirteen   in  the   States — Carroll,    Neale, 
Fenwick,    Fenwick,    Eccleston,    Myles,    Clanche, 
Tyler,     Reynolds,    Fitzpatrick,     Timon,    Carroll, 
Young.        Then,      Lefevre,      Vandevelde,      and 
Neckere    came     from     Flanders,     Baraga    from 
Illyrium,    Rosati    from    Italy,    Luers    and    Neu- 


The  Formative  Elements.  167 

mann    from    Germany,    Moreno    from    Mexico, 
and   Whitfield    from    England. 

Within  the  last  century  the  Irish  race  built  up 
seven  hierarchies:  one  in  Ireland,  one  in  Britain, 
one  in  America,  one  in  Canada,  one  in  the  Cape 
of  Good  Hope,  one  in  India,  one  in  Australasia. 
In  speaking  of  building  up  a  hierarchy  in  Ire- 
land, we  do  not  refer  to  the  hierarchy  of  the 
ancient  Irish  church,  nor  to  the  controversy 
relative  to  apostolic  succession  in  Elizabethan 
or  Marian  bishops  ;  but  we  assume  for  granted 
the  Irish  hierarchy,  priesthood  and  people,  were 
decimated  in  ages  of  persecution,  and  had  to  be 
reconstructed.  We  do  not  speak  of  desecrated 
temples  rebuilt,  or  confiscated  cathedrals  re- 
placed ;  but  we  mean  the  moral  and  mental 
style  of  rebuilding  the  hierarchical  edifice.  Be- 
fore the  foundation  and  endowment  of  May- 
nooth,  the  moulding  of  Irish  ecclesiastics  was 
marked  with  a  foreign  brand.  The  Irish  colleges 
at  Paris,  Rome,  Louvain,  Salamanca,  and  Coim- 
bra,  together  with  houses  of  religious  orders  in 
foreign  countries  and  a  few  home  institutions, 
such  as  those  of  Carlow,  Kilkenny,  and  Tralee, 
were  the  sources  whence  Ireland  was  supplied 
with  her  hierarchy.  Coming  from  foreign  coun- 
tries, and  trained  under  different  influences,  the 
sympathies  of  the  Irish  clergy  varied  much ;  but 


1 68  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

a  common  faith  and  common  feelings  of  persecu- 
tion attempered  them  to  a  common  sympathy 
and  inseparable  union.  The  French  ideas  and 
customs  prevailed.  Delahogue  in  the  infancy  of 
Maynooth,  and  Maynooth  training  and  teaching, 
afterwards  made  the  Irish  clergy  Gallican  rather 
than  ultramontane.  This  was  felt  in  all  the 
offshoots  of  the  Irish  Church.  Dr.  O'Reilly,  now 
a  Jesuit,  and  Cardinal  Cullen  have  in  a  great 
measure  succeeded  in  modelling  the  Irish  Church 
on  the  idea  of  the  Italian,  and  especially  the  Ro- 
man, rather  than  the  French.  The  harmonizing  of 
the  Gallican  hierarchy,  in  France  itself,  with  Rome 
has  had  a  wonderful  influence  in  the  same  direc- 
tion. In  England  and  Scotland  the  accession  of 
learning,  wealth,  and  influence  to  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  has  given  tone  to  the  episcopacy, 
irrespective  and,  it  might  be  said,  in  spite  of  an 
Irish  priesthood  and  Irish  congregations.  The 
British  Roman  Catholic  episcopacy,  though  it 
represents  Irish  constituencies,  is  aristocratic  in 
principle,  ultramontane  in  doctrine,  and  marked 
by  a  rigid  High-Church  inflexibility.  Being  led 
by  neophytes,  it  has  a  tendency  to  push  the 
divine  too  far  into  the  human  element  of  the 
church,  and,  having  left  what  it  considers  the 
bondage  of  change,  it  is  in  danger  of  setting  up 
the  mutable  as  unchangeable.     The  Irish  hierar- 


The  Formative  Elements.  169 

chy  as  led  by  Cardinal  Cullen,  and  the  British 
hierarchy  as  led  by  Wiseman,  agree  in  being 
thoroughly  ultramontane ;  but  Cardinal  Cullen 
would  stand  on  the  toes  of  Ireland  to  suit  Rome, 
whereas  Wiseman  would  inconvenience  Rome 
to  convert  England.  Cardinal  Cullen,  however, 
loves  the  Irish  people  after  Rome  ;  whereas  Man- 
ning respects  and  Wiseman  loved  British  aris- 
tocratic ideas,  privileged  orders,  and  social  alien- 
ations. Of  course,  the  body  of  Roman  Catholics 
in  Australasia  are  Irish  or  of  Irish  descent,  but 
they  may  thank  the  influence  of  Cardinal  Cullen 
at  Rome  that  Cardinal  Wiseman  did  not  com- 
mission to  them  a  body  of  high-toned,  aristo- 
cracy-loving, newly  consecrated  English  con- 
verts. In  East  India  the  influence  of  the  Por- 
tuguese court  recalled  the  Irish  hierarchy,  and 
left  East  Indian  Catholics  with  promises  unre-. 
deemed,  hopes  unfulfilled,  and  hierarchy  lost. 
The  powerful  influence  of  Cardinal  Cullen  at 
Rome  has  placed  the  nucleus  of  an  Irish  hier- 
archy in  Southern  Africa.  In  fact,  his  power  at 
Rome  seems  to  have  been  co-extensive  with  the 
confines  of  the  British  Empire,  and  to  his  credit 
be  it  said  that  he  has  sent  Irishmen  throughout 
the  world  to  Irishmen. 

Now,  let  us  leave   Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  and 
Oceanica,    and    direct    our    attention    to    North 


1 70         Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

America.  It  is  impossible  to  deny  that  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  is  tinged  in  its  human 
element  with  the  genius  of  the  nation  and  race 
where  it  may  exist.  The  triumph  of  the  States 
in  the  war  of  the  Revolution  gave  birth  to  an 
American  national  spirit,  which  has  been  growing 
towards  the  fulness  of  manhood  down  to  our 
day.  Canada,  either  through  fear,  or  want  of 
pluck,  or  apathy,  held  on  to  foreign  rule  and 
influences  as  a  child  at  a  mother's  apron,  and 
is  still  in  the  nursery.  Whether  it  be  the  spirit 
of  the  country,  or  the  genius  of  nationality,  or 
the  work  of  grace,  it  is  certain  that  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  has  more  than  kept  pace  with 
the  giant  strides  of  the  United  States,  and  has 
far  outrun  her  Canadian  sister.  Though  the  ele- 
ments of  colonization,  the  favors  of  secular  au- 
thority, and  the  tide  of  events  seem  to  have  been 
on  the  side  of  the  Canadian  Catholic  Church,  she 
looks  dwarfish  and  insignificant  side  by  side  with 
that  of  the  United  States.  Of  all  the  hierarchies 
which  have  been  founded  or  are  sustained  by  the 
scattered  Celtic  race,  that  of  the  United  States  is 
the  most  important  and  imposing.  On  this  side 
of  the  ocean,  and,  in  fact,  outside  of  Europe, 
there  is -nothing  in  communion  with  the  Roman 
See  like  the  Catholic  Church  of  the  United  States. 
And   already    this   young   giant  of  the  western 


The  Formative  Elements,  171 

worlg!  has  entered  the  lists  with  national  churches 
whose  age  is  counted  by  centuries  to  the  decades 
of  its  own  life.  It  stands  foremost  among  the 
offshoots  of  the  Saxon,  or  Latin,  or  Celtic  races. 
Outstripping  the  land  of  Montezuma  and  the 
spiritual  offspring  of  Portugal  on  the  South 
American  continent,  it  is  greater  than  the  Church 
of  St.  Patrick  or  the  Church  of  St.  Augustine, 
and  looks  France,  and  Italy,  and  Austria,  and 
Spain  face  to  face,  with  higher  hopes,  more 
peaceful  prospects,  and  brighter  destiny.  In 
mind  it  is  peculiar,  in  convictions  inflexible,  and 
in  luck,  pluck,  and  perseverance  foremost.  It 
somehow  breathes  and  is  quickened  by  the  mat- 
ter-of-fact, everyday  go-aheadism  of  the  United 
States.  Its  faith  partakes  more  of  the  rational 
than  of  the  blind,  and  its  actions  are  led  more  by 
the  necessities  of  the  hour  and  circumstances 
than  by  reference  to  the  usages  of  dead  forms 
of  society.  The  Catholic  Church  among  the 
Latin  races  round  about  the  Mediterranean  Sea 
seems  to  love  the  synthetic  discipline  of  Mongo- 
lian nations  ;  the  Catholic  Church  among  Celtic 
and  Teutonic  nations  is  leavened  with  the  spirit 
of  modern  analysis  ;  the  Catholic  Church  in  the 
United  States  inclines  to  theories  of  eclecticism. 
I  do  not  speak  of  what  Roman  Catholics  hold  as 
the  divine   element   of  Catholicism  ;   but  in   the 


172  Ireland  among  the  Nations, 

human  element  we  notice  among  the  Latin  races 
a  hankering  after  the  old  Roman  constitution, 
with  its  emperors,  and  prefects,  and  praetors ; 
among  the  Germans  and  Celts,  a  tendency  to- 
wards franchise  and  election ;  among  Americans, 
a  love  of  what  is  best,  wheresoever  found. 

Which  are  the  nations  that  have  contributed 
to  build  up  the  church  in  the  United  States  ? 
As  to  numbers,  it  is  founded  on  Ireland  ;  as  to 
thought,  it  is  founded  on  France ;  as  to  action 
and  policy,  it  is  founded  on  America.  To  every 
one  it  is  evident  that  the  sweat,  devotion,  and 
dollars  of  the  Irish  have  built  up  the  churches, 
institutions,  and  religious  homes  of  the  Union  ; 
but  as  the  religious  mind  of  Ireland  was  de- 
veloped and  directed  by  that  of  France  through 
the  infancy  and  early  years  of  the  youth  of  the 
American  Church,  the  mind  of  France  migrated 
to  America  by  two  lines — indirectly  through  Ire- 
land, and  directly  from  France.  But  when  that 
mind,  either  unalloyed  from  France  or  colored  in 
its  flow  through  a  Celtic  channel,  reached  Amer- 
ica, and  mingled  with  the  mind  of  America,  it 
was  further  modified.  Bishop  Brute,  in  our  judg- 
ment, is  the  best  representative  of  the  religious 
mind  of  America  in  its  original  form ;  Bishop 
England,  of  that  mind  with  its  Celtic  tinge ;  Bish- 
op Carroll,  of  the  same  with  its  American  color 


The  Formative  Elements.  173 

ing;  Bishop  Hughes  was  a  living  embodiment 
of  the  excellences  of  the  three.  The  three  were 
men  of  great  learning,  of  genuine  and  unaffected 
piety,  of  indefatigable  and  insurmountable  zeal 
and  prudence.  Bishop  Brute  was  an  ardent  lover 
of  the  grande  nation,  Bishop  England  was  a  fiery 
friend  of  Ireland,  and  Bishop  Carroll  was  a  Re- 
volutionary Washingtonian  patriot.  But  Bishop 
Brute's  conduct  was  regulated  by  the  rules  of 
ecclesiasticism,  Bishop  England's  by  the  daring 
and  aggressive  spirit  of  his  race,  Bishop  Carroll's 
by  the  sagacity  of  his  nation  and  the  wisdom 
of  his  renowned  order.  In  intellect  we  must 
drop  Bishop  Carroll,  and  substitute  his  successor, 
Bishop  Spalding.  Then,  the  light  from  Bishop 
Brute's  mind  was  always  constant  and  pleasing, 
that  from  England's  bright  and  at  times  dazzling, 
that  from  Spalding's  artificial  and  not  repulsive. 
Whoever  gazed  at  Brute's  mind  saw  the  moon  in 
a  clear  sky ;  whoever  saw  the  soul  of  England 
beheld  the  sun  at  noon-day;  Spalding's  mind 
was  a  hall  brilliantly  lit  up.  But  what  was  Arch- 
bishop Hughes?  What  Archbishop  Kenrick? 
Kenrick  was  a  man  of  learning;  Hughes  a  man 
of  learning  and  action.  As  far  as  Kenrick 
was  a  teacher,  and  as  far  as  Hughes  was  a 
legislator,  they-  may  be  called  fathers  of  the 
American  Church.    After  all,  Hughes  is  the  great 


1 74  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

man.  When  England  disappeared  in  the  south- 
ern heavens,  Hughes  rose  like  the  polar  star  in 
the  northern  sky,  to  remain  evermore  as  the  ever- 
visible  angel  of  the  American  Church.  He  was 
an  England  in  intellect,  energy,  and  patriotism  ; 
a  Carroll  in  Americanism  ;  and  a  Brute  in  learning 
and  Catholicity.  He  should  be  looked  up  to  by 
American  Catholics  as  the  great  man  who  first 
brought  their  church  from  obscurity  to  mid-day 
light  in  this  country,  and  founded  it  upon  the 
rock  of  justice,  truth,  and  humanity,  as  moulded, 
according  to  American  institutions,  by  the  Amer- 
ican mind. 

Such  are  the  great  men  among  the  American 
deceased  prelates.  As  to  piety  we  judge  not. 
They  have  stood  before  the  judgment-seat  of  a 
higher  tribunal.  We  stand  upon  their  graves, 
and  wish  their  spirits  peace.  They  witnessed 
days  of  trial  and  sectarian  bitterness  that  tried 
the  souls  of  men ;  they  were  respected  by  all 
nationalities,  creeds,  and  political  parties.  Of 
the  system  which  they  founded  we  merely  say 
that  they  planted  and  left  the  cultivation  to 
their  successors. 


CHAPTER    XXIX. 

THE    AMERICAN. 

HERE  has  scarcely  been  a  nation  in 
the  history  of  the  world  which  has  in 
so  short  a  time  developed  so  marked 
and  unmistakable  nationality  as  the 
people  of  the  United  States.  It  is  Asiatic  in 
its  conceptions  of  the  grand  and  the  great,  while 
it  is  European  in  its  practical,  empirical  life. 
Thither  has  been  gathered  the  aggregate  of  all 
national  excellences.  The  laws  of  eclecticism, 
which  made  old  Rome  the  mountain-power  of 
antiquity,  are  working  with  a  fivefold  force  in 
this  country,  untrammelled  by  the  debasing  and 
degrading  influences  of  caste,  slavery,  and  des- 
potism. In  the  whole  records  of  the  human  race 
the  manhood  of  the  individual  has  made  the 
manhood  of  the  nation,  the  liberty  and  energy 
of  the  individual  have  communicated  vitality, 
force,  and  independence  to  the  race  ;  and  in  no 
country  of  which  there  are  extant  documents  do 
we  find  a  nobler,  freer,  and  more  magnificent  des- 
tiny for  a  man  or  a  race, 

17s 


1 76  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

The  United  States  is  a  great  menagery  of  na- 
tions and  races ;  a  great  battle-field  in  the  peace- 
ful ways  of  life,  where  power,  preference,  and 
fame  are  the  common  property  of  all,  without 
distinction  of  race,  creed,  or  country.  The  orig- 
inal element  of  this  country  is  sadly  following 
the  sun  in  its  course  to  bury  the  bones  of  its 
remnants  on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific.  The 
founders  of  this  nation,  though  they  have  re- 
tained the  common  law,  and  in  a  great  measure 
the  institutions,  of  Britain,  have  come  from  Sco- 
tico-Celtic  origin,  and  leavened  the  whole  mass 
with  its  distinguishing  characteristics.  The 
shrewdness,  the  versatility,  the  quickness,  the 
mathematical  accuracy,  the  thriftiness,  the  tena- 
ciousness,  and  the  ingenuity  of  the  Scotchman 
and  North-of-Ireland  man,  are  eminently  con- 
spicuous in  the  Yankee ;  but  he  in  no  wise  mani- 
fests the  gruffness  and  haughtiness  of  the  Eng- 
lishman, though  he  surpasses  him  in  candor,  gene- 
rosity, and  truthfulness. 

There  are  here,  besides,  two  great  races — the 
German  and  the  Irish.  As  far  as  the  American 
is  concerned,  the  Irishman  has  certainly  the  ad- 
vantage. New  England  is  fast  becoming  Hi- 
bernian, whereas  the  Teutonic  element,  being 
excluded  down  East,  is  founding  its  homes  in 
the  far  West.     Even  in  the  West  the  pioneer  is 


The  American.  177 

generally  an  American  or  Irishman,  but  the  Ger- 
man follows  at  a  safe  distance,  and,  to  give  all 
parties  full  due,  manages  to  hold  his  position 
very  well  by  means  of  parsimony,  self-abnega- 
tion, and  cunning.  There  is  a  great  future  in 
America  before  the  Irish  and  the  Germans.  The 
Germans  may  seem  to  prevail  because  the  Irish 
are  more  quickly  absorbed  in  the  great  repub- 
lican population  and  marked  as  a  race  princi- 
pally by  their  religion.  Their  religion,  however, 
does  not  count  for  a  straw  with  the  American 
mind,  and  their  success  or  failure  will  depend  on 
their  temperance,  uprightness,  industry,  and  pa- 
triotism. There  is  a  deep  debt  of  gratitude  in 
the  American  mind  for  the  many  lives  which  the 
Irish  race  has  sacrificed  to  establish  this  country, 
to  maintain  it  in  its  wars,  and  especially  for  the 
oceans  of  blood  it  has  poured  out  to  preserve 
this  Union.  I  cannot  close  this  chapter  with 
more  instructive  remarks  than  I  find  in  the  ser- 
mon of  an  eminent,  tried,  and  patriotic  Catholic 
priest  on  the  surrender  of  Lee.  As  time  rolls 
on,  they  will  be  justified  more  and  more.  He 
said : 

"  I  wish  to-day  to  say  a  few  words  to  you,  and 
through  you  to  the  people  of  the  United  States, 
and  also  a  few  words  of  myself. 


1 78         Ireland  among  the  Nations, 

"  It  is  the  evidence  of  noble  natures  to  look 
calmly  at  events,  and  to  act  dispassionately  and 
justly  at  all  times  and  in  all  circumstances.  The 
victors  and  the  vanquished  may  equally  manifest 
the  power  of  intelligence  and  reason  and  the 
beauty  of  heroic  virtue — the  one  by  submitting 
to  the  inevitable  without  servility,  and  bearing 
up  against  disaster  without  despondence,  and  the 
other  by  acting  justly  and  without  violence,  and 
using  their  advantages  only  for  the  general  good, 
I  have  every  confidence  in  the  intelligence,  prac- 
tical common  sense,  and  great  goodness  of  the 
American  people  ;  and  the  reason  why  I  have 
this  confidence,  in  which  I  shall  not  be  disap- 
pointed, is,  that  they  have  pitched  aside  the  old 
theories  of  peoples  and  nations,  and  have  adopted 
broader,  nobler,  and  juster  views  of  the  rights  and 
duties  of  mankind. 

"  Guided  by  these  views,  they  will  not  act 
wrongly  nor  unjustly  toward  any  portion  of  their 
own  people,  nor  towards  mankind  in  general,  and 
the  world  at  large  will  come  to  respect  them  and 
fear  to  inflict  injury  upon  them.  The  nation,  as 
well  as  the  individual,  will  be  despised  or  hated 
that  has  not  a  just  respect  for  the  rights  of  others, 
as  well  as  a  proper  regard  for  its  own  rights.  I 
will  even  say  that  it  cannot  have  a  proper  regard 
for  its  own  rights,  if  it  has  not  a  just  respect  for 


The  American.  179 

the  rights  of  others.  You  ought  to  reflect  and 
ask  yourselves  why  it  is  that  some  people  are 
despised,  and  their  rights  not  respected  as  they 
ought  to  be.  It  is,  I  assure  you,  a  very  interest- 
ing, and  for  you  an  important,  question.  May  it 
not  be  that  you  have  not  manifested  among  man- 
kind a  proper  regard  for  your  own  rights,  because 
you  had  not  a  just  respect  for  the  rights  of  others  ? 
But  let  that  dark  and  disagreeable  problem  disap- 
pear before  the  light  of  to-day's  vision.  I  see  to- 
day the  greatest  future  for  America  that  any  peo- 
ple ever  dreamed  of,  because  the  rights  and  lib- 
erty of  all  are  now  firmly  secured  throughout  its 
wide  domain,  and  its  influence  and  example  must 
sooner  or  later  cause  the  triple  curse  of  mankind, 
slavery,  caste,  and  aristocracy,  to  disappear  from 
the  earth.  Ignorance  and  prejudice,  the  child  of 
ignorance,  have  brought  innumerable  woes  upon 
mankind.  But  they  and  a  long  train  of  legalized 
oppression  must  disappear  before  the  spread  of 
intelligence.  The  greatest  enemy  mankind  has 
or  ever  has  had  is  ignorance.  From  it  are  begot- 
ten prejudice,  bigotry,  intolerance,  persecution, 
and  tyranny,  and  the  innumerable  woes  of  want 
and  suffering. 

"  There  is  still  a  large  class  in  the  world  in- 
stinctively pursuing  the  way  of  suppressing  know- 
ledge,   because   they  are    selfishly  interested    in 


1 80         Ireland  among  the  Nations* 

maintaining  their  own  supremacy  by  the  igno- 
rance and  degradation  of  the  masses.  '  The 
slave  must  be  kept  ignorant,  because  the  security 
of  the  master  requires  it,'  is  still  the  motto  of  a 
larger  number  than  is  supposed.  There  are 
thousands  who,  though  they  dare  not  avow  them- 
selves the  enemies  of  intelligence,  yet  fear  it,  and 
are  its  deadly  enemies.  But  in  future  the  convic- 
tion that  a  high  order  of  intelligence  is  necessary 
to  know  one's  own  rights  and  the  means  for  pre- 
serving them,  as  well  as  to  feel  one's  own  wants 
and  wrongs,  and  to  select  the  means  of  supplying 
and  redressing  them,  will  spread  and  become 
irresistible. 

"  That  state  must  be  founded  on  a  wrong 
basis  and  governed  by  vicious  principles  which 
fears  intelligence,  and  practically  insists  on  the 
ignorance  of  the  people  as  necessary  for  its  exist- 
ence. It  builds  camps  and  barracks  instead  of 
school-houses.  It  takes  pride  in  what  it  ought  to 
be  ashamed  of,  and  is  ashamed  and  afraid  of 
what  ought  to  be  its  noblest  pride.  It  provides 
well-trained  officers  for  standing  armies,  and 
makes  the  toiling  millions  pay  for  them,  whilst 
they  are  left  without  well-educated  schoolmasters 
to  supply  that  intelligence  which  would  ulti- 
mately relieve  them  from  their  oppression  and 
poverty.     And    that    religion  also  must   have    a 


The  American.  181 

wrong  idea  of  God,  as  well  as  of  man,  which 
dreads  intelligence,  or  regards  it  as  inimical  to 
God's  government  or  the  best  interests  of  man. 
Selfishness  and  the  love  of  domination  must  have 
taken  firm  possession  of  any  religion  which  con- 
siders ignorance  necessary  for  the  interest  of 
either  God  or  man.  God  is  intelligence  and  the 
author  of  it,  and  ignorance  that  can  and  ought 
to  be  removed  should  be  considered  a  crime  by 
religion.  Can  it  be  possible  that  the  ministers  of 
the  Christian  religion  have  forgotten  that  the 
author  of  Christianity  never  made  a  promise  to 
ignorance,  except  to  teach  and  enlighten  it,  whilst 
he  has  made  many  promises  to  nearly  every  kind 
of  human  infirmity?  And  now  I  beseech  you  to 
love  liberty  and  to  love  intelligence,  and  try  to 
extend  these  blessings  to  every  member  of  the 
human  family.  Hate  tyranny,  oppression,  wrong, 
and  slavery,  but  above  all  hate  ignorance,  the 
fruitful  parent  of  wrong  to  the  human  family. 

"  Now,  a  word  with  regard  to  myself.  I  believe 
there  is  a  providence  of  God  respecting  these 
United  States,  which  is  to  me  very  striking  and 
special.  This  with  me  is  such  a  strong  convic- 
tion that,  like  faith,  it  has  guided  me  firm  and  un- 
wavering during  the  storms  and  trials  of  the  past. 
During  the  last  four  years,  I  found  that  friends 
became    cold    and    unkind,    and    acquaintances 


1 8  2  Ireland  among  the  Nations, 

reserved,  and  some  of  them  even  bitter,  towards 
me.  People  made  fun  at  my  expense,  and  even 
called  me  hard  names  in  my  presence.  Their 
peculiar  Christianity  baptized  me  with  such  epi- 
thets as  Black  Republican  and  Miscegenationist, 
because  I  believed  that  a  man  ought  to  own  him- 
self, and  ought  to  have  a  wife  and  family  without 
the  permission  of  a  master. 

"  I  bore  it  all,  if  not  with  the  patience  of  a 
saint,  at  least  with  the  indifference  of  a  stoic.  I 
knew  that  I  was  right,  and  that  those  who  differ 
from  me  would  be  converted,  if  not  by  grace,  at 
least  by  the  progress  of  the  age.  I  felt  that  igno- 
rance and  prejudice  could  not  last  for  ever ;  I  knew 
that  the  hard  logic  of  events  would  break  through 
the  thickest  skull,  and  convince  those  who  would 
be  deaf  to  truth,  reason,  and  the  pleadings  of  the 
finest  feelings  of  our  nature. 

"  I  was  right  in  all  my  calculations.  I  find  now 
that  all  are  coming  up  to  where  I  stood  years  ago, 
without  claiming  any  foresight  except  what  truth 
and  honesty  give.  I  have  predicted  pretty  clearly 
nearly  all  that  has  happened,  even  to  the  failure 
of  parties  and  organizations,  and  I  gave  the  rea- 
sons why  they  would  fail. 

"  And  now,  after  years  of  struggle  and  sore  trial, 
you  cannot  imagine  the  sweet  pleasure  and  the 
full,  calm  satisfaction  that  I  have  lately  enjoyed-. 


The  American,  183 

Oh !  to  feel  that  I  had  been  true  when  the  trusted 
failed  ;  to  be  conscious  that  I  had  been  friendly  in 
the  hour  of  trial,  when  the  worth  of  a  friend  can 
only  be  appreciated  ;  to  know  that  I  have  been 
faithful  when  friends  betrayed  ;  to  feel  that,  amidst 
the  ruin  of  plighted  faith  and  the  wreck  of  brok- 
en oaths,  I  remained  undaunted,  unshaken ,  and 
sincerely  loyal,  is  a  happiness  worth  possessing, 
and  for  which  a  man  should  toil. 

"  And    now,  having   gone   through   an    ordeal 
which  I  did  not  seek  nor  desire,  but  which  was 
forced  upon  us,  and  which  tried  our  manhood  and 
our  worth,  I  pray  God  that  I  may  never  be  sub- 
jected to  such   another   trial.     If,  however,  the 
selfishness  and  injustice  of  man  should  ever  again 
force  us  to  battle  for  truth,  right,  and  justice,  and 
the  best  interests  of  mankind,  I  feel  that  my  loy- 
alty in  the  future  would  be  what  it  has  been  in 
the  past.   I  know  that,  if  I  proved  traitor,  I  could 
not  respect  myself,  nor  could  I  hold  up  my  head 
like   a   man   before  the  tribunal    of  the  Author 
and  Judge  of  all  right,  truth,  and  justice.     It  is  a 
great  mistake  to  suppose  that  loyalty  to  the  su- 
pernatural is  all  that  is  required  of  us,  and  that 
we  may  with  impunity  trample  upon  natural  right 
and  justice.  .....  It  is 

pleasant  to  know  that  liberty  is  the  right  of  all 
men,  and  it  is  useful  to  know  that  it  will  ever  find 


j  84  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

true  friends  and  brave  defenders  among  all  races, 
as  well  as  cowardly  traitors  and  bitter  foes  among 
all  nations  and  all  religions.  And  now,  if  we  have 
done  well  in  the  past,  let  us  be  calm  and  consider- 
ate, and  let  us  cherish  no  desire  to  harm  any- 
human  being.  If  we  have  acted  badly,  let  us  be 
sorry,  and  resolve  to  do  better  for  the  future,  and 
then  there  will  be  well-grounded  hope  for  the 
church  as  well  as  for  the  state,  and  for  the  indi- 
vidual as  well  as  for  mankind." 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

THE   DESTINY   OF  AMERICA. 

•HERE  is  something  vague  and  pagan 
about  the  word  destiny ;  but  the 
workings  of  Providence,  by  a  kind  of 
necessity,  seem  to  hold  up  high  and 
grand  aims  before  the  United  States,  which  par 
excellence  we  call  America.  There  are  other  na- 
tions in  America,  such  as  Brazil  and  Canada,  to 
which  nature  has  given  boundless  territory,  vast 
water  facilities,  and  incalculable  natural  re- 
sources ;  but,  by  some  inexplicable  fatality,  Provi- 
dence has  not  stamped  their  names  with  that 
mysterious  word,  destiny.  By  a  regular,  un- 
abated progression,  the  mind  of  this  country  is 
marching  to  an  undefined  greatness,  and  its  mate- 
rial power  and  wealth  are  expanding  with  an 
infinite  development,  and  the  population  is  multi- 
plying with  an  undiminished  increase  in  the  fulfil- 
ment of  its  destiny.  Other  nations,  witnessing  the 
surpassing  growth  and  the  rising  facilities  of  ex- 
pansion in  the  United  States,  are  somehow  drawn 
unconsciously  into  an  acknowledgment  of  destiny, 
and  are  captivated  by  that  of  this  country. 

i8<5 


1 86  Ireland  among  the  Nations, 

It  is  impossible  for  any  one  to  obtain  a  true 
idea  of  the  vastness  of  this  country  by  reading  ; 
one    must    travel    through    the    United    States 
to    have    a   living    knowledge    of    its    greatness, 
to  feel    its    boundless  amplitude.     The    features 
of  our  country  are  not  marred  with  vast  oceans 
of  sand    like  those    of  Africa,   nor  with    barren 
and   uninhabitable    plateaus   like   those   of  Asia, 
nor  with  ice-bound  rivers,  snow-covered  steppes, 
and  bleak  Arctic  wastes  like  those  of  Siberia  and 
Canada,  but  its  surface  stretches  along  the  line  of 
the  temperate  zone,  and   throughout  the  length 
and  breadth  of  its  mighty  domain  is  laid  out  by 
the  hand   of  nature   for  cities,  towns,  highways, 
railways,  and  the  habitation  of  man.     The  river 
system  of  the  United  States  imparts  to  it  a  living 
energy  and   quickens   its  animation,  just   as   the 
healthy    pulse    of  blood    in    circulation    through 
human  arteries  invigorates  the  human  frame.     Its 
vast  plains  and  enormously  grand  mountains  con- 
tain inexhaustible   supplies  of  coal  and   endless 
stores    of   mineral   wealth.      The    engineer  finds 
ample  scope  for  his   most  sublime  conceptions, 
and   the  wildest   dreams   of  surveyors   are   more 
than  realized  in  the  grand  realities  of  the  United 
States.    Year  by  year  Territories  grow  into  States, 
before  whose  power,  wealth,  and  extent  the  glo- 
ries of  the  conquered  provinces  of  Rome,  Persia, 


The  Destiny  of  America,  187 

and  Babylonia  are  cast  into  the  shade.  And  over 
these  vast  realms  nature  has  spread  with  lavish 
luxuriance  all  varieties  of  soil,  vegetation,  and 
produce,  and  all  diversities  of  climate,  from  the 
bracing  cold  of  the  North  to  the  sunny  influences 
of  the  South,  and  from  the  varying  thermometer 
of  the  Atlantic  coast  to  the  equable  temperature 
of  the  Pacific  seaboard. 

Washed  by  oceans  and  bounded  by  zones, 
America  holds  the  central  and  commanding  posi- 
tion of  the  world.  It  is  connected  with  Europe 
by  innumerable  ties  of  blood,  of  race,  of  national- 
ity, of  language,  of  institutions,  and  of  historic 
traditions.  It  is  not  fettered  with  the  chain-ball 
of  prejudice,  nor  narrowed  to  the  pathways  of 
any  nation.  Its  long  eastern  coast-line  confronts 
the  western  coast-lines  of  the  three  continents  of 
the  Old  World,  and  the  magnificent  shores  of 
California  and  Oregon  are  spread  out  before  the 
nations  of  the  Orient,  face  to  face.  The  four 
winds  of  heaven  waft  the  outcast  and  the  op- 
pressed from  all  the  nationalities  of  the  world  to 
its  hospitable  shores.  America  is  the  home  and 
asylum  of  the  human  race,  the  promised  land  of 
the  wanderer,  the  stronghold  of  the  persecuted, 
the  resting-place  and  fatherland  of  the  exile. 
Here  there  is  solace  for  the  broken-hearted 
patriot,   there   is  food   for  the  hungry,  there   is 


1 88  Ireland  among  the  Nations, 

labor  for  the  idle,  there  is  education  for  the 
ignorant,  there  is  security  from  the  tyrant,  there 
is  toleration  from  persecution,  there  is  wealth  for 
the  industrious,  there  is  hope  for  the  downcast, 
and  there  is  preferment  for  the  worthy.  The 
eyes  of  the  world  are  turned  toward  America,  for 
she  has  become  the  mistress  of  two  oceans  and 
the  resting-place  in  the  grand  highway  of  the 
transoceanic,  transcontinental  route  between  the 
nations  of  Europe  and  the  vast  lands  of  Poly- 
nesia and  Eastern  Asia  with  its  multitudinous 
millions.  To  Europe  America  sends  her  lessons 
of  peace,  humanity,  and  toleration,  and  on  Asia 
she  reflects  the  light  of  our  age,  and  race,  and 
civilization.     Is  not  this  destiny  ? 

One  of  the  grandest  ideas  interwoven  with 
American  destiny  is  the  cosmopolitan  character 
with  which  its  institutions  are  impregnated. 
Had  America  been  shackled  with  the  narrow 
notions  of  European  nationality,  had  she  been 
manacled  with  the  caste  doctrines  of  Asia,  had 
she  been  encumbered  with  the  weight  of  an 
established  church,  or  had  she  been  bandaged 
with  the  political,  social,  national,  or  religious 
prejudices  of  the  Old  World,  she  would  never 
have  manifested  the  healthy,  vigorous,  consistent, 
and  gigantic  development  to  which  one  century 
of   national  life  has  given  birth.     And   as  time 


- 


The  Destiny  of  America,  189 

rolls  on,  it  is  her  destiny  to  influence  more  and  more 
the  destinies  of  other  nations.  Hence  we  do  not 
marvel  that  sects  have  endeavored  to  graft  their 
religious  tenets  in  her  Constitution ;  but  the 
genius  of  the  American  nation,  which  accords  a 
hearing  and  liberty  to  all  religions,  which  is 
opposed  to  intoleration,  and  will  never  permit 
persecution,  has  always  excluded  and  will  never 
sanction  such  a  consummation. 

There  are  two,  and  only  two,  constitutions 
which  can  harmoniously  move  side  by  side  in  this 
country — the  constitution  of  the  Catholic  Church 
and  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  They 
lie  parallel,  like  the  rails  on  a  track,  and  over 
them  the  American  nationality  can  travel  with 
train  speed.  Neither  was  made  for  nationality, 
race,  or  language  ;  each  spreads  its  broad  aegis 
over  all  nationalities,  races,  and  languages. 
There  is  no  human  being,  no  matter  from  what 
clime,  no  matter  by  what  oppression  he  may 
have  been  overladen,  no  matter  what  his  ante- 
cedents, who  may  not  enter  the  broad  door  of 
the  Catholic  temple  and  the  wide  gates  of  Ame- 
rican nationality  with  full  and  unquestioned 
rights  to  participate  in  their  spiritual  and  tempo- 
ral treasures.  Before  the  laws  of  the  United 
States  and  before  the  altar  of  the  Catholic 
Church  there  is  genuine  republican  democracy  and 


1 90         Ireland  among  the  Nations, 

perfect  equality  of  the  human  family  without 
distinction  of  race,  language,  nation,  government, 
class,  or  caste.  The  same  cosmopolitan  aspira- 
tions, the  same  high  and  noble  conceptions  of  the 
human  race,  the  same  sublime  disregard  of  per- 
sons, the  same  solicitude  for  the  outcast  and  op- 
pressed, the  same  holy  and  unswerving  resolve  to 
elevate,  and  ennoble,  and  civilize  the  human 
race,  permeate  the  doctrines  of  the  Catholic 
Church  and  the  laws  of  the  United  States.  Is 
there  no  kind  of  destiny  in  this  ? 

Anyhow,  the  Irish  race  is  bound  up  with  the 
destiny  of  America,  and,  like  a  tributary  of  a  great 
river,  is  rolled  along  with  ft  in  its  course.  The 
destiny  of  the  Irish  race  is  also  interwoven  with 
that  of  the  Catholic  Church,  and  has  grown  out 
of  it  as  a  branch  from  the  trunk  of  a  tree.  Thus 
the  Irish  race  is  a  connecting  link  between  the 
great  church  of  ages  and  the  great  and  rising 
nation  of  the  world.  Could  anything  be  higher 
or  more  momentous  than  this  twofold  destiny  of 
Ireland,  than  this  twofold  mission  of  the  Irish 
race  ?  Rejoicing  in  the  grandeur  of  her  destiny, 
America  marches  on  to  be  the  great  nation  of  the 
future.  Sustained  by  the  power  and  promises  of 
her  Founder,  the  Catholic  Church  will  remain  as 
the  church  of  ages.  The  success  or  failure — that 
is>  the  destiny — of  the  Irish  race  will  depend  on 


The  Destiny  of  America.  191 

its  intelligence,  education,  and  moral  worth. 
The  destiny  of  the  Catholic  Church  is  divinely 
guaranteed,  and  all  human  circumstances  seem 
to  foreshadow  a  grand  and  unparalleled  destiny 
for  the  United  States 


CHAPTER   XXXI. 

EDUCATION    AMONG    RACES. 

|F  all  the  ages  from  the  foundation  of 
the  world  to  our  day,  the  ages  of 
Pericles  in  Greece,  of  Augustus  in 
Rome,  and  of  Louis  XIV.  in  France, 
are  marked  as  the  ages  of  civilization.  Whether 
the  nineteenth  century,  with  its  inventions,  its 
progress,  its  open  and  unrelaxed  efforts  in  the 
path  of  development,  is  to  be  numbered  as  a  co- 
equal with  those  mentioned,  must  be  left  to  the 
arbitrament  of  generations  that  are  to  come. 
One  thing  is  certain,  that  its  success  or  failure, 
its  superiority  or  inferiority,  depends  on  educa- 
tion. What  is  education?  In  all  the  depart- 
ments of  life,  let  the  knowledge  be  empirical  or 
inductive ;  in  all  the  phases  of  society,  let  the 
truths  be  of  a  religious  or  political  complexion, 
education  holds  a  common,  unquestionable,  and 
direct  sway.  The  term  education  is  co-extensive 
with  the  term  knowledge.  Is  knowledge  the  off- 
spring of  experiments  through  the  senses  ?  It  is 
subject  to   education.     Is  knowledge   the   result 

of  truths  stamped  by  the  Creator  on  the  mind 

19a 


Education  among  Races.  193 

at  its  creation,  inborn  in  the  mind,  but  not  of  the 
mind  ?  It  is  subject  to  education.  Is  knowledge 
a  light  from  on  high,  foreshadowed,  to  be  sure, 
by  the  light  of  reason,  but  unseen  and  untouch- 
ed, whether  by  observation  or  development  ?  It 
is  subject  to  education.  In  religion  and  politics, 
in  science  and  arts,  in  business  and  life,  education 
displays  an  unquestionable  energy  and  vitality. 
Though  education  is  not  strictly  an  art,  it  deals 
with  all  subjects  that  are  known  by  the  name  of 
art ;  though  education  is  not  purely  a  science, 
within  its  domain  are  all  branches  of  knowledge 
to  which  the  word  science  can  be  applied.  In 
fact,  education  may  be  styled  the  art  of  arts  and 
the  science  of  sciences. 

Now,  as  man  differs  from  man,  so  nation  differs 
from  nation.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  a  national 
will,  a  national  intellect,  a  national  memory,  and 
a  national  imagination.  Hence  there  is  such  a 
thing  as  a  national  education.  Is  there  not  a 
national  memory  ?  Is  there  not  in  the  Irish  na- 
tion the  memory  of  its  wrongs,  and  of  its  sorrows, 
and  of  its  tribulations  through  hundreds  and 
hundreds  ol  years  ?  Is  there  not  a  national  in- 
tellect and  judgment?  Did  not  the  judgment  of 
the  French  nation  call  the  First  Napoleon  to 
the  imperial  purple,  and  did  not  the  judgment  of 
the    same    French    nation   set    aside    the   Third 


1 94  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

Napoleon  ?  Is  there  not  a  national  imagination  ? 
Have  not  the  Cossack  and  the  Slave  been  dream- 
ing of  universal  empire  for  ages  ?  Is  there  not  a 
national  will?  Did  not  the  people  of  the  North, 
at  incredible  loss  of  money  and  of  blood,  pre- 
serve the  life  of  the  Union  ?  But  as  with  in- 
dividuals, so  with  nations.  In  some  the  memory, 
in  some  the  intellect,  in  some  the  will,  in  some  the 
imagination,  preponderates.  The  Italian  is  re- 
markable for  memory.  This  is  seen  in  the  impro- 
visatori.  The  laws  and  educational  system  of 
Italy  for  over  a  thousand  years  tend  to  the  same 
result.  You  can  find  Italian  contadini  able  to 
explain  the  Theodosian  Code  and  unable  to 
write  or  even  to  read.  They  learn  by  means  of 
lectures,  sermons,  conversationi,  and  the  like. 
Italy  is  no  less  remarkable  for  its  voluminous 
writers — in  history,  canon  law,  theology,  biogra- 
phy, and  subjects  of  the  same  class — than  it  is 
for  its  poets,  painters,  sculptors,  and  archi- 
tects. Italy  is  emphatically  the  land  of  memory 
and  imagination.  Its  laws,  its  institutions,  its 
customs,  and  its  methods  of  education  have, 
through  over  a  thousand  years,  developed  the 
memory  and  imagination  rather  than  the  judg- 
ment and  the  will.  This  may  explain  the  ex- 
clamation of  Byron : 


Education  among  Races,  195 

"Italia,  O  Italia  !  thou  who  hast 
The  fatal  gift  of  beauty,  which  became 
A  funeral  dower  of  present  woes  and  past, 
On  thy  sweet  brow  is  sorrow  ploughed  by  shame, 
And  annals  graved  in  characters  of  flame." 

And  again : 

"O  Rome  !  my  country  !  city  of  the  soul  ! 
The  orphan's  heart  must  turn  to  thee, 
Lone  mother  of  dead  empires  ! 
•  .  •  •  • 

The  Niobe  of  nations,  there  she  stands, 
Childless  and  crownless  in  her  voiceless  woe." 

The  Teutonic  race,  whether  German  or  Saxon, 
is  as  decidedly  marked  by  the  prevalence  of  judg- 
ment and  will  as  the  Italian  is  by  that  of  the 
memory  and  imagination.  Hence  the  German 
race  is  cold,  stolid,  obstinate,  and  inflexible.  It 
has  been  studying  the  leading  minds  of  ancient 
Greece  and  Rome  for  centuries  in  its  many  uni- 
versities, colleges,  and  schools.  Its  scholars  are 
critical  rather  than  imaginative,  and  imitative 
rather  than  original.  Even  when  original,  there 
is  a  haze  of  mysticism  and  metaphysical  obscurity 
overshadowing  their  most  prized  and  beautiful 
productions.  They  overabound  in  the  faculty  of 
investigation,  and  are  wanting  in  the  faculty  of 
communication.  The  Germans  are  a  patient  and 
persevering  people,  and  have  long  been  the  prey 
of    disunion  and  the  tools  of  petty  princes.     It 


196  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

may  be  the  cold,  leaden  lethargy  of  their  litera 
ture  will  be  relieved  and  inspired  by  an  animus 
and  national  afflatus,  now  that  the  German  can 
sing- 
Up  swells  the  Belt,  the  Baltic  sea — 

Up  swells  the  German  wave  ; 

Elbe  runs  to  battle  merrily, 

And  Oder  grasps  the  glaive  ; 

Neckar  and  Weser  tarry  not, 

And  Main  flows  eager  on  : 

All  old  disunion  is  forgot — 

The  German  race  is  one  ! 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  French,  that  impul- 
sive, mercurial,  and  restless  nation,  which  is  ever 
pulsating  as  the  waves  of  the  sea  ?  The  Franks 
appear  to  have  retained  some  of  the  characteris- 
tics of  their  forefathers  beyond  the  Rhine,  which 
have  been  in  part  eliminated  and  deeply  colored 
with  the  traits  of  the  Latin  races.  The  French 
mind  loves  order,  symmetry,  numbers,  is  noted  for 
quickness  and  general  correctness  of  judgment, 
while  it  is  behind  the  Italian  mind  in  works  of 
imagery  and  memory.  There  is  a  variety  and 
versatility  about  the  French  mind  that  reminds 
one  of  the  ring,  and  swell  and  change  of  the 
Homeric  hexameter.  The  Italian  mind  is  gener- 
ally opened  and  educated  by  the  study  of  logic, 
history,  and  religion.  The  Teutonic  mind  is  de- 
veloped and  polished  by  studying  the  beauties  of 


Education  among  Races.  197 

ancient  classic  writers.     The  French  mind  usually 
opens  to   the  idea  of  order  and  numbers.     It  de- 
lights in   figures  and  symmetry,  and  one  can  find 
the  idea  of  order  underlying  even   its  works  of 
passion  and  imagination.     But  before  these  races 
settled   down   in    Europe,  and  manifested  a   de- 
veloped national  mind,  before  the  Italians  saw  the 
Tiber  and  the  Po,  before  the   Teutons   saw   the 
Oder,   and  the  Rhine,  and   the  Thames,   before 
the  Franks  beheld  the  Rhone  and  the  Loire,  a 
wave  of  the  human  family  passed  westward,  and 
poured  over  the   ocean-girded  lands  of  Caledon 
and  Ireland.     The  face  of  its  mind  is  marked  and 
peculiar.      Why?      Because   it    bears   on    it   the 
types  from  which  later  races  seem  to  have  taken 
their  distinguishing  traits.     In  one  wing  of  the 
Celtic  race — the  Caledonian — there  is  the  judg- 
ment and  will  of  the  Teuton ;  in  the  other — the 
Hibernian — there  is  the  memory  and  imaginative- 
ness of  the  Italian  ;  while  the  characteristics  of 
the  French  mind  abound  in  both  wings.     There  is 
to-day  a  surprising  power  of  modification,  of  imi- 
tation, and  of  adaptability  in  the  descendants  of 
the  Celtic  race.     There   is    no   people   who  can 
change  with  so  much  ease  in  so  short  a  time,  and 
follow  such  varied  avocations.     In  works  of  the 
judgment,  of  the  memory,  of  the  imagination, 
the  genius  of  the  Celtic   race  is  a   rival  of  the 


198  Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

proud  genius  of  Greece  or  the  master-minds  of 
Rome.  Coeval  with  the  genius  of  Israel  or  the 
disciples  of  Zoroaster,  the  Celtic  genius  still  lives 
in  its  youth,  and  is  replete  with  energy  and 
vitality. 

And  now,  let  us  cast  a  glance  at  education  and 
civilization  marching  down  the  unreturning  cen- 
turies of  the  past.  Born  in  distant  ages,  in  the 
lands  of  the  East,  the  queen  of  wisdom  and  civi- 
lization established  her  empire  by  the  banks  of 
the  Nile  and  the  Euphrates.  As  generations  pass- 
ed away,  civilization  marched  towards  the  set- 
ting sun.  In  the  isles  and  on  the  mainland  of 
Greece  she  reached  the  zenith  of  her  glory.  The 
mind  of  Greece  has  animated,  inspirited,  and 
directed  the  brains  of  the  human  race.  The 
Homer  of  Greece  is  the  Homer  of  to-day ;  the 
Demosthenes  of  Greece  is  the  Demosthenes  of 
to-day ;  and  the  great  Stagirite  and  the  divine 
Plato  run  down  through  time  with  undiminished 
lustre.  Greece  shines  among  the  civilized  nations 
of  the  past  as  the  sun  amid  the  heavenly  bodies. 
But  when  the  glory  of  Greece  paled  away,  and 
the  liberty  of  that  enlightened  land  went  down 
before  the  iron  and  remorseless  tramp  of  Roman 
legions,  and  the  trophies  of  her  proud  cities  were 
drawn  in  triumph  up  the  capitol,  civilization  set 
her  throne   on   the   seven   hills    by   the    Tiber. 


Education  among  Races.  1 99 

Thence  she  shed  her  light  over  the  nations  of  the 
Western  world.  The  Italian,  the  Teuton,  the 
Frank,  and  the  Celt  received  enlightenment  from  a 
new  Rome  that  arose  on  the  ruins  of  the  old. 
Drinking  at  the  fountains  of  the  mighty  minds  of 
Greece  and  Rome,  and  illumined  by  a  brighter 
and  more  resplendent  light  from  on  high,  and 
animated  by  the  spirit  of  liberty,  they  went  forth 
to  win  more  unfading  laurels  than  either  Greek 
or  Roman,  and  to  found  a  civilization  that  was  to 
last  for  ever.  The  effeminate  people  of  Asia 
bowed  before  the  new  lords  of  the  human  race, 
the  ignorant  sons  of  Africa  fled  to  deserts  and 
forests,  and  the  enlightened  and  educated  nations 
of  Western  Europe  have  remained  masters  and 
dictators  of  the  nations.  Yea,  more  !  in  the  march 
of  education  and  civilization,  matter  has  been 
subjected  to  mind,  space  has  been  almost  annihi- 
lated, fire  and  water,  and  air  and  earth,  have  be- 
come subject  to  man,  new  and  subtle  fluids  have 
been  discovered  and  utilized,  and  the  world  be- 
holds to-day  an  education,  an  enlightenment,  a 
liberty,  and  an  elevation  unknown  to  the  haughty 
ones  of  Greece  or  Rome. 

Let  us  turn  once  more  our  eyes  on  this  our 
common  country.  Nature  has  spread  out  our 
vast  prairie-lands  like  the  surface  of  the  ocean, 
and  rolls  through  them  our  mighty  rivers  with 


200         Ireland  among  the  Nations. 

force  greater  than  the  flow  of  the  Atlantic  by  the 
Pillars  of  Hercules,  or  the  roll  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean Sea  through  the  Bosporus,  and  has  lifted 
up  our  mountains  miles  beyond  the  thrones  of  the 
Olympian  gods.  The  expansions  of  our  rivers 
compete  in  area  with  the  surface  of  the  central 
sea.  Our  States  are  greater  in  size  and  in  wealth 
than  the  dependencies  of  haughty  Rome.  Hither 
has  come  what  is  excellent,  what  is  great,  what 
is  ennobling  in  the  education  and  civilization  of 
Italy,  of  Germany  and  England,  of  France  and 
Ireland,  and  Spain  and  Scotland.  Under  a  free 
and  unconquerable  banner,  wealth,  power,  and  pre- 
ferment are  open  to  all.  This  is  an  amphitheatre 
for  the  championship  of  all  nations.  Here  there 
is  no  prejudice,  no  inequality,  except  what  is  born 
of  mind,  morals,  and  muscle ;  no  tyrant  to  tread 
down  the  poor  man.  We  welcome  among  us  the 
importers  of  the  excellences  of  all  nations.  We 
delight  in  the  eclectic  system.  Already  our  rail- 
roads bind  the  continent  from  ocean  to  ocean  ; 
over  the  broad  surface  of  our  land  are  universities, 
colleges,  high-schools,  institutes,  lecture-halls,  and 
all  the  means  and  guarantees  for  the  diffusion  of 
light,  and  learning,  and  knowledge,  from  the 
shores  of  Maine  to  the  Golden  Horn,  from  the 
Lakes  to  the  Gulf.  May  we  yet  see  the  concen- 
trated glories  of  our  parent  countries  shine  over 


Education  among  Races.  201 

this  new  and  virgin  land,  this  young  and  mighty 
nation,  radiant  with  hope  in  the  morning  of  her 
days,  and  impregnated  with  the  greatness  of  her 
destiny !  May  we  see  American  Tassos,  and 
Ariostos,  and  Dantes,  and  Metastasios  ;  Raphaels, 
and  Michael  Angelos,  and  Brabantes  ;  Baroniuses 
and  Cantus,  the  rivals  of  the  Italians ;  Schillers, 
and  Goethes,  and  Leibnitzs,  and  Rosenmullers, 
Miltons,  and  Shakespeares,  and  Newtons,  the 
equals  of  the  Teutons  ;  Bossuets,  and  Rousseaus, 
and  Noels,  the  brothers  of  the  Franks  ;  Burkes,  and 
Currans,  and  Grattans,  Moores,  Wattses,  Scotts, 
and  Burnses,  to  reflect  in  this  new  world  the 
glories  of  the  old  Celtic  race.  Men  of  Ireland, 
proud  sons  of  proud  Scotia,  remember  the  glories 
of  your  ancestors,  and  the  high  and  momentous 
destiny  that  awaits  you  here  on  this  continent, 
where  all  nations  are  contending  for  the  foremost 
rank  !  True  to  the  instincts  and  traditions  of  the 
past,  faithful  to  the  laws  and  institutions  of  this 
country,  kind  to  each  other,  and  encouraging  to 
all,  press  forward  in  the  battle  of  life  to  the  goal 
of  victory. 


iiftj  ys| 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

COMPARATIVE  SURVEY  OF  NATIONS — BROTHER* 
HOOD  OF  RACES. 

HE  spirit  of  travel,  the  spirit  of  curios- 
ity, and  the  spirit  of  enquiry  are  very 
closely  allied,  and  are  found  side  by 
side  with  the  love  of  self-preserva- 
tion, the  love  of  self-perpetuation,  the  love  of 
truth,  and  the  love  of  power.  The  desire  to 
know  ourselves  leads  to  a  wish  to  know  the 
beings  that  are  like  ourselves,  and  hence  there 
is  a  natural  tendency  which  is  gratified  by  ethno- 
logical investigations,  and  intensifies  the  spirit  of 
enquiry  through  all  researches  on  humankind. 
It  is  pleasing  to  travel  in  spirit  over  the  broad 
and  unfailing  empire  of  the  human  family,  and 
to  examine  the  strange  things  of  distant  or  for- 
gotten races,  and  to  enquire  into  the  causes 
which  have  regulated  national  life ;  but  it  is 
more  pleasing  in  connection  with  mankind  to 
develop  the  spirit  of  philanthropy,  humanity, 
and  brotherhood  ;  to  trace  the  handiwork  of  God 
through  ages  and   nations ;  to  be  guided  by  the 

aoa 


Comparative  Stcrvey  of  Nations.     203 

light  of  the  face  of  the  Lord,  which  unfailingly 
shines  on  the  soul  of  man  ;  and  to  recognize  as 
one's  brother  the  image  of  God,  without  inter- 
posing the  barriers  of  creed,  caste,  class,  ages, 
languages,  nationality,  or  government.  And  in 
travelling  over  the  field  of  investigation  which 
we  have  chosen,  we  might  have  remarked  that 
the  light  of  God,  though  it  might  have  been 
obscured,  was  never  changed  into  utter  darkness, 
and,  though  human  nature  might  have  been  cor- 
rupted, the  glory  of  the  human  heart  was  never 
extinguished.  Where  the  nobility  of  man  was 
degraded,  and  the  aspirations  of  the  human  soul 
were  smothered,  the  work  of  ruin  and  desolation 
on  the  human  spirit  came  not  from  the  Father 
of  benevolence  on  high,  with  whom  is  every 
-good  and  perfect  gift,  but  was  executed  by  the 
hands  of  man,  and  was  conceived  by  individuals 
or  races  in  a  spirit  of  despotism,  selfishness,  or 
inhumanity. 

We  have  been  in  spirit  among  nations  away 
back  in  history  and  in  the  far-distant  lands  of 
Western  Asia,  and  we  saw  that  the  degradation 
of  the  Assyrian,  the  Babylonian,  and  the  Persian 
arose  from  the  tyranny  and  heartless  cruelty  ot 
inhuman  rulers ;  that  with  all  their  savagery,  the 
Scythians  were  the  brain-seeds  of  European 
nations ;  and  that  with  all  their  stubbornness  and 


204         Ireland  among  the  Nations, 

hard-heartedness,  the  Jews  were  the  custodians  of 
revealed  truth  for  the  human  race.  The  bright 
electric  light  of  Grecian  culture  and  intelligence, 
and  the  rays  of  Roman  common  sense,  which 
shone  like  a  luminary,  were  obscured  by  the  black 
spots  of  slavery,  rapacity,  idolatry,  and  inhuman- 
ity. The  noble  valor  of  the  ancient  Teuton  and 
the  blunt,  honest  Saxon  was  stained  by  his  cold- 
blooded cruelty ;  the  sublime  sacrifice  of  the 
Mohammedan  Arab  was  tarnished  by  his  fatalism 
and  slavish  subjection  ;  and  the  Northman's  super- 
human valor  and  utter  disregard  of  life  were 
buried  and  forgotten  in  the  dark  grave  of  his  in- 
human practices  and  fiendish  revenge.  The  refine- 
ment and  intelligence  of  Byzantium  were  melted 
away  in  the  emollient  indolence  and  enervating 
sensualism  of  Asiatic  customs,  and  the  noble  aspi- 
rations of  the  mediaeval  Italian  republics  were 
stifled  in  the  widespread  chaos  of  a  rising  society. 
And  in  modern  times  the  fairest  features  of 
nations  are  marred  with  the  unsightly  scars  of 
selfishness,  greed,  despotism,  cruelty,  and  in- 
justice. Germany,  through  her  history  from  the 
days  of  the  Teutonic  knights  and  the  time  of 
Brandenburg,  has  been  branded  with  the  foul 
mark  of  despotic  feudalism.  The  Italians  have 
been  stained  with  endless  anarchy  and  intrigue  ; 
the  English  have  been  blackened  with  selfishness, 


Comparative  Survey  of  Nations       205 

greed,  and  cruelty  ;  and  Spain  has  been  a  land  of 
blood,  black  deeds,  and  treachery.  With  all  their 
vagaries  and  whimsicalities,  the  idea  of  principle 
shines  above  all  the  shortcomings  of  the  French  ; 
and  though  they  have  been  an  endless  source  of 
disarrangement  to  the  pendulum  which  regulates 
the  balance  of  power  in  Europe,  their  restlessness 
has  detracted  very  little  from  their  nobility  of 
character  and  sublime  devotion  to  the  doctrine 
of  principle.  Other  nationalities  outside  the 
great  Cossack  Empire  have  been  wafted  to  and 
fro  by  the  stronger  currents  of  the  European 
races  just  mentioned  ;  and  when  we  turn  our  eyes 
on  modern  Asia,  we  find  there  are  dark  recesses 
among  its  hundreds  of  millions  of  population 
where  scarce  a  ray  ever  enters  of  the  light  which 
is  reflected  in  the  pages  of  the  Zend  Avesta,  the 
Vedas,  the  Koran,  or  the  writings  of  Confucius 
and  Lao-tse.  Those  dark,  dark  recesses  are  the 
homes  almost  exclusively  of  the  female  sex.  In 
arid,  impenetrable,  and  inhospitable  Africa,  the 
openings  for  God's  light  to  the  soul  of  man  are 
like  the  vistas  in  the  black  forests  of  its  darkest 
jungles.  Away  in  distant  Polynesia,  the  silence 
of  the  cannibal  conscience  is  like  the  still,  dead 
calm  of  the  great  ocean  around  his  coral  islands. 
But  with  all  the  weaknesses  of  the  human  heart 
and  aberrations  of  the  human  mind,  we  find  the 


206         Ireland  among  the  Nations, 

fires  of  human  conscience  evermore  smoldering, 
and  the  instincts  of  nature  bursting  forth,  and 
hopes  and  feelings  whose  tendencies,  like  cer- 
tain gaseous  fluids,  are  ever  upwards.  Where  we 
find  failings,  we  should  condone  ;  and  where  we 
find  excellences,  we  should  praise.  I  confess  that 
I  turn  with  pride  from  a  comparative  survey  of 
nations  to  the  dear  old  Celtic  race,  that  I  can  admire 
it  in  its  Druidical  simplicity  and  sublimity,  and 
that  I  can  love  it  in  its  pure  Christian  beauty  and 
brightness.  I  confess  that  the  hands  of  Ireland 
have  been  stained  with  the  blood  of  its  brothers, 
and  have  likewise  worked  foul  deeds  under  the 
dictation  of  foreign  masters  ;  but  the  soul  of  Ire- 
land was  ever  open  to  grace  and  brotherhood, 
and  the  heart  of  Ireland  was  ever  susceptible  of 
the  highest  instincts  of  justice  and  humanity,  and 
the  intellect  of  Ireland  ever  shone  like  a  lumin- 
ary when  reflecting  the  light  of  civilization  and 
Christianity.  I  can  mourn  with  Ireland  in  her 
sorrows  and  tribulations ;  I  can  grow  angry  with 
her  in  her  feelings  of  vengeance  :  I  can  weep  with 
her  amid  her  ruins  and  desolations ;  I  can  rise 
with  her  from  the  abyss  of  despair,  hope  with  her 
in  her  hopes,  joy  with  her  in  her  joys,  glory  with 
her  in  her  glories,  and  love  with  her  in  the  univer- 
sal and  inexhaustible  charity  of  her  brotherhood. 
And   now,  gentle  reader,  I  shall  bid  you  fare- 


Comparative  Survey  of  Nations.       207 

well.  We  have  made  a  long  voyage  through  ages, 
and  we  have  performed  a  tedious  journey,  ac- 
companied with  many  investigations,  through  the 
nations  of  the  earth  round  about  the  globe.  If 
I  have  been  just  to  my  race  and  my  kind  ;  if  I 
have  treated  all  nations  with  the  judgment  of 
truth  and  the  feelings  of  brotherhood,  and  if  you 
give  testimony  that  it  has  been  my  desire  to  bear 
witness  to  truth,  justice,  intelligence,  religion,  and 
humanity ;  then,  kind  companion,  before  we  part, 
I  shall  constitute  you  heir  to  the  results  of  my 
investigations,  namely : 

That  (a)  all  races  under  the  sun  have  excel- 
lences ; 

That  {b)  their  defects  are  for  the  most  part 
ascribable  to  circumstances  and  causes  beyond 
their  control ; 

That  (c)  the  Celtic  race,  though  it  has  its  defects, 
is  inferior  to  no  other  in  its  excellences ; 

That  (d)  having  singular  advantages  in  America, 
it  will  rise  to  a  higher  standard  ; 

That  (e)  the  eclecticism,  freedom,  education, 
and  destiny  of  America  converge  to  make  it  the 
most  outshining  political  structure  which  man- 
kind has  ever  seen  ; 

That  (/)  the  brotherhood  of  races  is  fully 
recognized  in  this  country  and  the  Catholic 
Church  ; 


208        Ireland  among  the  Nations, 

That  (g)  the  combined  influences  of  the 
republican  system  in  the  United  States,  and  of 
the  Christian  republic  in  the  Catholic  Church, 
give  independence  to  individuals  and  races,  truth 
and  enlightenment  to  human  minds,  goodness 
and  grace  to  human  wills,  and  elevation,  refine- 
ment, and  manhood  to  the  human  spirit  and 
character. 


Date 

Due 

3/s/j^f 

f 

BOSTON  COLLEGE 


3  9031   01646167  5 

471 


i 


BOSTON  COLLEGE  LIBRARY 

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